The Faeries of the Falls
by Thunderbyrd
Summary: The Pines twins' second summer of adventuring has commenced, with one of of their searches leading them into the deepest section of the Gravity Falls forest to fins some mystical forest faeries. However, will their journey end up in turmoil after a mild case of suspicion rises between the twins and the faerie clan?
1. Chapter 1: Forest Follies

**Wow, was I long overdue for another GF fic or what, eh?**

**After four Wendip stories and a lengthy, drama-infused sibling story b/w the Pines twins, I figured it was time for me to dip my toe into the water by writing something supernatural or fantasy-like for a change. While this story isn't really going to include anything life-threatening or ultra-dangerous that'll affect our favorite twins, it may include a dash of suspense with a sprinkling of action along the way, but per the norm with my other stories, you can still expect fluffy good times in this story as usual.**

**Also, I know I've stated on my profile that this would be a one-short story, but b/w wanting to get some of this story done and the fact that I'm also currently working on getting a job at a casino nearby my town in PA, I've decided to make "Faeries of the Falls" a multi-chapter story for now (but not to the extent of "Saudade" tho, this'll most likely be a three chapter story instead…)**

**Sorry for not being as productive as of late, but regardless, I still hope you all enjoy this story! :D**

**Gravity Falls is owned by Alex Hirsch and Disney. (I do not own any of its characters nors it properties. This is purely a non-profit fanfic made for fun).**

* * *

**THE FAERIES OF THE FALLS**

**CHAPTER ONE: FOREST FOLLIES**

The seemingly never-ending forests that surrounded the town of Gravity Falls, Oregon were always known to hold many mysteries, as well as some weird and supernatural entities that not many of the Gravity Falls populace have ever heard of before. Some of these mysterious creatures could range from being harmless to friendly, or in some cases, they could also either be feral or threatening, with even some creatures being downright evil, notably one of them being the fallen master of chaos known as Bill Cipher himself!

But still, whether the woods are home to many weird creatures or not, people still enjoy exploring around the town's woodland areas to see what calming treasures they hold, with the trails shrouded with towering pine and redwood trees of different widths and heights, beautiful arrays of fresh-smelling and brightly-colored flowers and flora growing on the lush, green grass, and sometimes, even with various animals popping up to greet any travelers along the way, like squirrels, birds, owls, butterflies, rabbits, and even the occasional deer or elk.

And today, as it would seem, was no different as two young adventurers were seen traversing through the forest that one balmy Sunday afternoon.

"Dipper, are ya sure we're heading down the right way?"

"Sure as sure can be, Mabes...the map hasn't proved us wrong yet…"

"But it feels like we're goin' around in circles, Dip! That splotch of green stuff on that tree over there looks kinda familiar…"

"That's cause it's _moss_, Mabel, and it's _everywhere_. Trust me, sis, we'll be there in no time…"

"Err...if you say so…"

Young Dipper and Mabel Pines of Piedmont, California had arrived back to the Falls just some weeks ago to spend their summer with their family in Gravity Falls and they were already excited to get into some supernatural searching once again. So far, both twins (especially Dipper) were overjoyed to be back in Oregon regardless.

Since then, things have managed to both change and somewhat still stay the same when they have returned to their "second home". Soos now ran the Mystery Shack with his girlfriend Melody, Wendy was still the rebellious, but good-hearted redhead she always will be, the Grunkles had returned from their own long-time session of adventuring and were still living in the Mystery Shack with Soos and Melody as tenants, and Pacifica Northwest has been seen doing odd jobs all around town to make sure she and her parents were able to make ends meet after losing their mansion to Old Man McGucket.

And suffice to say, they were all beyond glad to see their favorite twins once again!

However, with Soos, Melody, Wendy, Pacifica, and Grunkles Stan and Ford being busy with their own affairs today, the twins with left on their own accord, deciding to get some adventuring done as soon as possible. On this bright and sunny afternoon, one of their first explorations this summer involved them travelling through the green, dense, winding path through the Gravity Falls forest to find a mysterious and tiny village of sorts. With Journal #1 in Dipper's hands, the male twin in question had his eyes glued to one of the pages, which included a nicely-detailed map that led through said forest.

Mabel had a camera strapped securely around her neck while Dipper was carrying a backpack packed with canteens of water, baggies of snacks for lunch, flashlights, and other emergency supplies for precaution along for their little trip. As of now, both twins were carefully heading down the grassy lane, still trying to find their mysterious quarry with no such luck.

And I'm sorry to say that Mabel, who normally adores going on these kinds of exciting adventures, was seeming a tad apprehensive throughout most of this. They have been out of a couple of hours now and they didn't seem to be any close into finding their bounty, and seeing as how deep they were going into the wooded area, she was worried that they might get jumped by a wild animal or by some other weird and supernatural being at some point.

As she trailed a few feet slightly behind Dipper, carefully avoiding stray branches, tree roots, and rocks in the path, all while making her mild indignations soundly heard.

"Dipper, really, I feel like we're not getting any headway with finding where these...these…thingies live!" admitted Mabel unsurely, fiddling about with the sleeves of her green, tree-themed sweater.

Dipper groaned softly in response. "We're looking for faeries, Mabel…" he clarified, "Journal #1 here mentions of a clan of 7-inch tall faeries that occupy a hidden section of the Gravity Falls forest, due northwest. Considering that we've seen a few of these faeries travel outside from their home, I'm just curious to see what their home might be like in real life..." Mabel only pursed her lips at the sound of that.

"Dipper, we've been in this forest for a couple of hours! We should've seen at least one faerie by now!" sighed Mabel from behind. Dipper frowned thoughtfully.

"Well, the Journal _did_ say that these faeries do conceal themselves from any onlookers to protect them from any potential harm…" explained Dipper, his nose still buried within the Journal's pages. One page describing these mythic beings showcased an illustration that had a few faerie sketchings drawn smack-dab in the middle of a drawing of the Gravity Falls Forest, also acting as a map leading from outside the wooded area, through the winding forest, and towards a small village hidden within the trees.

"But still, these faeries _are_ genuinely kind in nature, so at least we won't have any of them trying to kill us…" finished off Dipper assuringly. However, Mabel still looked cautious.

"I really hope not…" sighed Mabel, looking up to the tall and majestic pine trees surrounding all around her and Dipper in every direction. Thin, small beams of sunlight piercing through the branches and leaves above trickled down on the two young adventurers. "I know some of them might be a bit upset with us, though…" she commented off-handedly.

Dipper looked back at her with a befuddled look. "How so, Mabel?" he asked curiously. Mabel rubbed her shoulder awkwardly.

"Well, there was a couple of occasions where a couple of those faeries did get...eh..._squished_ when they would pop up around the Mystery Shack…" she explained timidly. Even Dipper couldn't help but wince upon recalling such an instance when a faerie was seen spotted outside from their hidden homescape, especially when that faerie wound up dealing with the business end of Soos' flyswatter that one time.

"I see what you mean…" he admitted understandingly. Even if the Journal _did_ state that these faeries were quite benevolent, he still hoped they wouldn't harbor a grudge towards him, Mabel, and any other member of their family for accidentally causing any harm to them...that is if they could find their village at some point.

"And also," added Mabel as she caught up next to Dipper, "what if these faeries turn out to be secretly evil or are just a bunch of meanies, like those unicorns me and the girls met last summer?"

Again, Dipper could see where Mabel was coming from. Last summer, she, Wendy, Candy, and Grenda had to get some magic hair from a group of unicorns to help save the Mystery Shack from the evil Bill Cipher, but as it turned out, the unicorns were all stuck-up and quite condescending towards Mabel and her friends. Both twins were certainly hoping not to have another occurrence like _that_ happen again anytime soon.

Still, he didn't let that thought put a damper on his attitude as he and Mabel ventured on through the thickening forest regardless. "I'm sure the faeries won't be as bad as that unicorn you guys came across…" smiled Dipper kindly, patting Mabel's back in assurance, "What'd you say her name was again? Celeste-something? Celestia? Cellebellabella?"

"Celestabellebethabelle." confirmed Mabel with a nod. Dipper pursed his lips at that name. He prayed that the forest faeries didn't have names as...long-winded as _that_.

"Err, right, that one..." he continued with a tiny cough, "Either way, I'm still at least hoping to discover the location of their village so I can take a photo of it and place it in our journal. Evidently, Grunkle Ford wasn't able to actually uncover the faeries' home as of yet, so if _we_ could find it for him, then that could be a great feat indeed!"

Mabel pursed her lips, mildly unsure about all of this, but still, she didn't want to ruin Dipper's determination. Plus, she certainly _was_ curious to find this village herself, so she figured it best to simply keep a close eye out and to stick close to Dipper to discover these creatures.

* * *

Their travels took them through several more sections of the woods, with them passing by tall trees and moss-covered rocks, to them crossing streams and creeks along the way. The crisp afternoon air blew all around the twins, scattering green leaves across their path. The lucid sounds of chirping crickets, tweeting birds, and the subtle whistling of the summertime winds filled the sky, echoing around the maze of trees surrounding our two young heroes.

Searching over high hills and low streams, the twins were practically making sure they'd both have eyes in the back of their heads to make sure they'd find the faerie village at some point. However, as the day wore on, Mabel and even Dipper were a little worried and tired upon not finding this hidden village yet.

It was already 2:30PM and there was still no possibly sign of any faeries to be seen, much to the twins' discouragement as they have been out and about in the forest since 11:00 earlier today. And in spite of the map's accuracy, they still seemed like they weren't making much progress so far.

As of now, the Pines twins had just crossed over a babbling brook using the rocks in the stream as stepping stones to get to the other side as they traversed down the dirt path, Dipper's nose still buried in the Journal as he scanned all around the map to find anymore landmarks along the way. Mabel, whom was feeling quite tired herself, swigged down some water from her canteen and groaned out of exhaustion.

"Dipper…" she moaned wearily, "I don't think we're gonna be able to find any faeries anytime soon…"

Dipper sighed sadly. Even _he_ was beginning to agree with Mabel's statement. As much as he hoped to discover the faerie village, his determination and prowess could only go so far and even if they couldn't find the village during their travels, Dipper hoped to find at least _one_ faerie along the way, but alas, it would seem this day was going to be all for naught.

"I just know it has to be around here somewhere…" he muttered to himself, his eyes still glued to the map, "We should have at least came across some sort of green tunnel by now…"

Mabel raised an eyebrow upon hearing her brother's muttering. "Green tunnel?" she asked quizzically.

"Basically, this tunnel acts as a sort-of passageway that directly leads to the faerie village, but I feel like we should've seen it by now…" explained Dipper.

"Well, I hope we see it soon…" griped Mabel, "I feel like we must've crossed this whole forest three times by now…"

And again, despite of Mabel's somewhat-uncharacteristic doubts, Dipper let out a small, defeated sigh, silently agreeing with her statement. The day was nearly over, and they seemed to be running out of forest at the moment. Plus, there hadn't been hide nor hair of the faerie village in sight along the way.

"There just has to be a route we haven't taken yet…" murmured Dipper worriedly to himself, his eyes continually glued to the Journal's pages, "We should've reached their village by now, or at least towards that tunnel."

As Dipper kept walking down the path with his nose still in the Journal, it was Mabel who suddenly came to a stop, surprised upon seeing an obstacle up ahead that made her jump slightly...and of course, Dipper was too distracted to see it in his way.

"Uh...Dipper?" she beckoned warily.

"I mean, we couldn't have traced through this _whole_ forest now...could we?" fretted Dipper, not even listening to Mabel at this point. The female twin trembled in her spot.

"Dipper!?"

"It just doesn't make sense. I could've sworn the map said-"

"DIPPER, IN FRONT OF YOU!"

Mabel's sudden warning cry was enough for Dipper to finally snap his head up from the book long enough to find out where he was. Suddenly, he felt his balance falter greatly, startling him to cause him to drop Journal #1 on the ground next to him.

Dipper's mind was now frazzled and clear enough to see where he was now, teetering on the edge of a steep hill that sloped down into a grassy grotto below him! The Pines twin tried to position himself and waved his arms about to stabilize his body away from falling down, but his footing was loose on the hill's edge, and unfortunately, Dipper wasn't strong enough to try and keep his balance.

Mabel gasped in horror and began sprinting over to Dipper to help him out. "Hold on, bro-bro! Mabel's coming!" she yelled, coming to his rescue.

Sadly, and without warning, just as Mabel caught up to Dipper, she realized it was too late. Her out-reached fingers just barely grazed the hem of Dipper's vest before the poor boy felt himself lose his footing altogether and he wound up sliding down on his back down an embankment, yelling fearfully all the way down the slope.

Mabel could only gasp in shock, frozen in place on the top of the hill and helpless to see her twin brother. She chewed frightfully upon the sleeves of her sweater as she looked down at all the dust and dirt Dipper was kicking up during his sliding fall.

Luckily, the hill was at a 120 degree angle, slanted just enough to not have Dipper cause any bodily harm to himself should he reach the bottom of the hill, but at the speed and rate Dipper was going, sliding feebly on his back, he knew he had to brace for impact regardless as the grassy, green bottom of the hill was soon reaching closer and closer to him!

Dipper closed his eyes and gritted his teeth in fear, expecting a rather rough collision with the ground to occur…

***SPLASH!***

"Oof...*cough-cough*...ugh..."

But instead, Dipper wound up not hitting the ground per se, but actually into a small pond! The pond itself was absolutely covered in moss, thick enough to actually have the water blend in with the grassy fields around it, as if it was camouflage. Dipper thrashed under the water for a few seconds to finally breach his head above the head, gasping desperately for air.

Dipper doggy-paddled to the closest shore of the pond, dragging himself out of the water and onto dry land once again. His clothes and hat were soaked through and were covered with bits of moss and pond scum, but luckily, Dipper was more startled than hurt from this whole ordeal. All he could do was gasp and cough out any water that ran up his nose and throat, leaving only Mabel to stay all the way up on top of the hill behind him.

"DIPPER! ARE YOU OKAY!?" Mabel called out worriedly. Dipper was getting the last bit of pond water out of system, too strained to speak for now, but he turned back and gave Mabel a reassuring, though weak thumbs-up in return.

"DON'T WORRY, BRO-BRO! I'LL GET DOWN THERE SOON TO HELP YA!" And with that said, Mabel grabbed Ford's Journal from off the ground and ran off in another direction to find a safer way down the hill, leaving Dipper by himself at the moment.

Dipper sighed and gave out one last cough, clearing his throat enough to finally be able to speak clearly again. He shook his head and peeled off any splotches of moss off his vest, upset that today's journey had turned out to be quite a mess after all.

"Maybe finding this village was a mistake after all…" he grumbled tiredly under his breath, starting to fully agree with Mabel's proclamations. Suddenly...

"Oh goodness, that was a rather nasty tumble you've had! Are you hurt, sweetie?"

"Ugh, no, I-I don't think so...thank you for...asking?"

Dipper cut himself off. A sudden, light-toned, female-sounding voice rang in his ears, but the voice he heard didn't sound anything like Mabel's own voice like he expected. Dipper turned his head around, taking in the sights surrounding him. He saw another stretch of forestry a few feet ahead, and a field of long and unkempt grass alongside one part of the pond, but he didn't see any sign of any other person with him.

He gulped, trying not to show any lingering fear. "Uh...wh-who s-said that?"

A light and innocent giggle was heard, causing Dipper to flinch uneasily. "Up here, dearie…" said the voice kindly.

Dipper craned his head ever so slowly, afraid to see what or where that voice was coming from. However, he hadn't needed to look up that far before he suddenly found himself eye-to-eye with a strange, yet oddly-familiar creature.

Said creature looked humanoid in appearance. She had shiny mauve-hued skin that sparkled in the sunlight, ruby red hair that was styled in a French bob, hazel-colored eyes, dimples sprinkled across her pale, button-nosed, smiling face, and her only form of appeal was a matching red, toga-esque dress fashioned from rose petals, along with a lack of footwear to boot. In addition to her feminine, lithe body-type, she almost looked like a miniature 17-year-old teenager from the looks of it.

The most distinct feature this mysterious, half-foot tall creature had were its thin, dainty, translucent wings, constantly fluttering about like a bumblebee's wings as she looked into Dipper's eyes with a friendly, soft smile.

It only took one glance at this creature to be enough for poor Dipper to yelp in shock, causing him to tumble on his rear end and having him wind up falling backwards into the pond once more! The creature winced and gazed in absolute worry upon seeing the human look so flustered as he tried to get himself afloat in the pool again.

"Oh my stars…" she gasped, fluttering closer to the pond, "Mister, are you okay? I didn't mean to scare you!"

Dipper poked his head out of the water and coughed up more pond water. He rubbed his eyes to try and get the water out, as he was not able to see the creature very clearly at the moment.

"Y-Yeah...I'm okay…" he uttered quietly. The little creature sighed in relief.

"Whew, that's good to hear…" she confided gently, glad to know this newcomer was okay, "But still, let's get you out of this water, dearie. You might catch a cold if you wade around in there for so long!"

Before Dipper could say or do anything, the winged being flew over and carefully grabbed Dipper by his left hand, pulling him hard enough to help him clutch onto the bank of the pond for support. Dipper was surprised by the creature's ability to pull him so easily, in spite of her small stature, but soon enough, the tiny humanoid was able to help pull Dipper back onto dry land and on his two feet once more. Dipper dusted himself off and squeezed his shirt to get rid of any excess water. He shook his wet head dry and slowly began to feel his vision slowly return as he marveled at how creature so easily helped him out of the pond.

"Oof, strong little creature, aren't you?" he chuckled, impressed with the strength this little critter was capable of. The creature in question only chuckled modestly in response.

"Ah, well…" she tittered with a wave of her hand, "You know us faeries, we're always full of surprises, you see…"

Dipper chuckled back. "Yeah, I guess you can say tha-"

Suddenly, the gears in Dipper's mind finally went into full overdrive, realizing what this creature was referring herself as. As he fully regained his vision once again, he gingerly gazed back in her eyes with pure curiosity at the little entity fluttering before him.

"Wh-What did y-you say you were a-again…?" he asked softly. The creature looked a smidge confused from the human's odd change in behavior, but she still gave him a sweet smile regardless.

"A _faerie_, dearie." she repeated back kindly, "I actually live with a group of my kind in a small village nestled in the forest northwest from here."

Dipper's eyes grew to the size of saucers upon hearing that! There was actually a faerie village existing in the Gravity Falls forest after all! And with a gaggle of genuine faeries living there to boot! It almost sounded too good to be true for Dipper.

"O-Oh gosh, a real faerie! I'd never thought I'd find one again!" he gasped silently to himself, an excited smile creeping onto his face. He turned towards the faerie and gave her a grin so big that Dipper felt his cheeks go sore from doing so.

He then coughed into his fist, trying not to let his excitement get the best of him. "Er, ma'am?" he asked towards the faerie, "I-Is it okay if we were to ask you a question? Uh, I-I mean, ahem, if that's alright with you, that is…" he muttered shyly, hoping he wasn't being too forward. Surprisingly, the faerie only giggled lightly back at Dipper, her smile returning to her face.

"I'd be delighted to!" she agreed wholeheartedly before she remembered something, "Although, I feel we should at least wait for your friend to meet back with you before I could answer anything…"

Dipper raised a confused eyebrow, unsure of what she meant about at first before it finally dawned on him.

"'My friend'? What is-oh..._Oh_, wait, your talking about Mabe-"

***RUSTLE-RUSTLE!***

"GAH! PBBT! PBBT! STUPID BUGS! GO AWAY!"

A sudden rustling and a shout had occurred through the patch of tall grass a few feet away from Dipper and the faerie, causing them both to jump a bit until they realized who was sifting through the grass.

Thankfully, Dipper felt his spiked heart rate ease down upon seeing what came out through the grass! With Ford's Journal safely clutched in her hand, Mabel Pines jumped out from the grassy hedge, shooing away any moths and bugs in her way upon revealing herself. Dipper smiled and sighed in relief.

"Oh, thank goodness...Mabel, over here!" he called, running towards her with a smile. Mabel heard her brother's shout and beamed brightly, glad to see that Dipper was safe and sound, albeit a bit wet.

"Dipper!" she squealed as she also ran towards her brother, arms a-spread. Soon, both twins met each other with a tight, grateful hug, both relieved to not be in any peril.

"Are you alright, bro-bro?" asked Mabel from within the warm (though soggy) embrace, "That was a pretty big fall ya took…"

Dipper smiled and patted his sister's back gently. "I'm okay, sis, really…" he assured with a smile. Mabel exhaled in solace. However, before she could say anything else, she opened her eyes and suddenly noticed that the twins weren't alone after all.

The small, sparkly-skinned being flying innocently on the sidelines was enough for Mabel to let go of the hug and gasp in surprise, realizing what the creature actually was.

"D-Dipper! Th-Th-That's a-a-a f-f-f…" stuttered out Mabel, pointing towards the little being with widened eyes. Dipper chuckled softly at his sister's shock and gently eased her down with another pat on her back.

"Heh-heh, relax, Mabes." smiled Dipper, "Turns out we found a faerie after all…"

Mabel's surprise soon turned into adoration and glee, her eyes shining like stars to see such a cute faerie in their midst. "Ooh, Dipper, she looks so shiny and cute and small!" she cooed excitedly.

The faerie blushed and giggled good-heartedly. "Oh-ho, you're too kind, darling!" she smiled sweetly.

Dipper and Mabel then gathered closer to their new faerie friend with curious looks. Mabel bounced giddily in place with boundless excitement.

"I can't believe we actually found one, Dippy!" squeaked the easily-excited girl in a hushed voice, "Isn't this amazing!?"

"It certainly is…" whispered Dipper with a smile that's almost as big as Mabel's. Just then, Dipper realized he forgot to make a proper introduction towards the faerie.

"Oh, darn it, where are my manners...ahem, my name is Dipper Pines and this is my twin sister, Mabel!" he stated, gesturing to his sister next to him, whom simply waved happily at the faerie. The little creature in question beamed and tittered happily.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both! My name is Rosemary!" she chirped, going to each twin and giving them a friendly handshake.

"Sorry for the scare, miss. We hope we didn't disturb you or anything." Mabel said apologetically with a small smile. Rosemary simply chuckled back warmly.

"Oh, no need to worry, dears. I was only here to collect some pollen for my village when I saw you both up on that hill." she explained kindly, pointing towards a small, wool bag filled with freshly-picked pollen on the ground close by the pond.

"But, if I may ask," Rosemary then quizzed out of curiosity, "what brings you two dearies to this neck of the woods? We hardly see humans pass through _this_ section of the forest."

A pair of shy and quiet mumbles were only heard between the twins. They both haven't actually expected to see a faerie this up close this soon, and after seeing how sweet and genuinely friendly Rosemary actually was, they both now suddenly became worried that them asking to find where her village was may wind up turn into something of a loaded, personal question. They didn't want to come across as rude or deceptive towards their newly-met faerie ally.

However, judging by the sweet, almost-motherly grin Rosemary was sporting towards the timid twins, Dipper and Mabel decided it best to try and be honest with their goal.

"We, uh, ahem, were actually hoping to find a faerie village...y'know, to see where the faeries exactly lived in Gravity Falls?" beckoned Dipper with a soft tone. Rosemary raised a curious eyebrow.

"Oh?" she simply replied. Her tone didn't seem suspicious or offended in some way, but the twins (especially Dipper) seemed quite on edge to notice.

"We only wanted to document it in our Journal was all…" explained Mabel, presenting Grunkle Ford's Journal before Rosemary to see. The faerie in question put on a thoughtful face and scratched her chin.

"Hmm, I see…" she mused to herself.

At this point, Dipper felt like they were now both intruding in on Rosemary. Was she really going to show them her home with such weak explanations like these? What if the other faeries don't approve of having humans in their domain? Or what if they were to blame them both for inadvertently causing harm to their friends and family whenever they popped around the Shack? Guilt and fear bubbled in Dipper's stomach like a boiling pot of chili, knowing that he and Mabel must've crossed a line at some point.

"W-We aren't planning to hurt anyone or to destroy your v-village! Honest! W-we just wanted to...I mean...we…" Dipper helplessly stammered out whatever reassurances he could give to Rosemary as best as he could, but alas, he was too flustered to even try to calm down.

Inside Dipper's head, perhaps this trip was meant to be all for naught after all.

"Maybe we could...or I...I...oh, forget it…" sighed Dipper, the sudden feeling of guilt finally taking over his mind and soul. Mabel looked back towards Dipper with a confused look.

"D-Dipper?" she asked in mild bafflement.

"M-Maybe this trip wasn't going to work out after all…" sighed Dipper dejectedly, hiking up his soaked, but undamaged backpack as he turned gave Rosemary one last guilty glance before looking away.

"W-We're sorry, miss, for intruding in on your business. We promise we won't bother you again…" he apologized, now getting ready to leave.

Mabel could hardly believe it! Dipper seemed so keen to find this faerie village and now he was getting cold feet? Even Rosemary looked quite confused and saddened at what just occurred right now, but before Dipper could even think about turning tail and leaving right now, she buzzed over to him and gently grabbed his right hand. Dipper stopped in his tracks and jolted from the unexpected, yet soothing touch of Rosemary's calming aura as she rubbed his hand, akin to a mother trying to soothe her upset child.

"Dipper, dearie, why are you planning on leaving already? D-Did I do something wrong?" whispered Rosemary in a hurt voice. Mabel frowned softly and without hesitation, came over to her and gently used her index finger to rub Rosemary's back reassuringly.

"You didn't do anything wrong, Miss Rosemary…" replied Mabel, trying to sound positive, "Dipper's just kind of a shy worrywart sometimes…" Dipper guiltily looked down at his feet and blushed softly, confirming Mabel's description.

That didn't seem to cheer Rosemary up that much as she looked pityingly towards the young tween boy now ready to try and head back home. "Oh, you poor thing…" she cooed softly, feeling quite sorry for Dipper indeed.

Dipper ogled at the comforting sprite with a silent, though uneasy frown, figuring it best to apologize for his actions. "I'm dreadfully sorry if we were asking for too much, Rosemary. We only wanted to complete a section of our Journal for our Grunkle was all…" he explained sadly, "We weren't meaning to take advantage of you..."

Mabel, noticing the sincerity and wrongfulness in Dipper's tone, also decided to stick up for him as well, remembering how uncertain she was at the start of this journey. "Dipper's right. Plus, we weren't planning to do any harm to your friends or home or anything. We promise!" she agreed.

Having finished their apologies, Dipper and Mabel still didn't feel any better after getting such statements off of their chests, but to their utter surprise and disbelief, Rosemary's perplexed expression morphed into one of understanding and pure, unadulterated kindness.

"Oh, it's perfectly okay, you two…" she replied tenderly, "I know you both meant well from the start…"

This sentence caused the twins to both raise an eyebrow. "You did?" they both chorused curiously. Rosemary nodded and smiled.

"Mmm-hmm, us faeries can sense the auras of many other creatures, be they human or faerie or even animals, kind of like a 'superpower' that we have, I suppose. I know you both only wanted to do good and that you both never meant any harm…" assured Rosemary, her tone light and sincere enough to calm the twins' rattled nerves. Then, she let out a tiny giggle.

"Besides," she continued, "who'd say 'no' to two adorable kids like yourselves?" Her innocent remark, of course, only caused the twins to blush out of both embarrassment and of flattery, eliciting another joyful laugh to escape from Rosemary's lips.

"So, if you'd both like, " offered Rosemary kindly, "I'd be happy to give you two a little tour around our village to see what we all do there."

The offer was enough to prompt a smile on the twins' faces, with Mabel's being the biggest, naturally. "Of course we would!" she chirped, her excitement now returning with full force, "Thank you, Miss Rosemary!"

Rosemary blushed and smiled. "You're more than welcome. But please, dearie, you don't need to call me "Miss". Us faeries don't really need to be _this_ formal after all!" Then, she looked back up to Dipper, sensing that in spite of her reassurance, she could tell he was harboring a bit of nervousness deep inside. She continued to rub his hand gently and gave him a soft, kindly grin.

"So, what do you say, sweetheart? Would a trip to our village be okay?" she cooed towards the boy. Dipper gazed into Rosemary's caring eyes nervously. He'd be lying if he wasn't still worried about imposing in on Rosemary's business, but if she was firm enough to say that she wanted to show him around, then who was he to look a gift horse in the mouth? Plus, the encouraging smile Mabel was giving him gave him a glimmer of hope, so he decided it best to see where this goes.

He gulped softly and tried to make his smile a tad bigger. "Well, if you insist…" he said finally after a half-minute of worried contemplation.

Rosemary beamed brightly from the response and soon gave Dipper's knuckle a soft, grateful kiss, prompting Dipper to blush even harder. "Excellent! You two are going to love my home, I promise!" she chirped happily. She then let go of Dipper's hand and whizzed freely past the twins to retrieve her bag of pollen by the lake before she hovered right back in front of them.

"My home is past through these trees here," she said, gesturing towards a section of trees and shrubs away from the grotto, "We should arrive at the village in no time at all!"

Mabel danced happily in place. "Oh-boy-oh-boy-oh-boy! This is so exciting, I can't wait to see the look on Grunkle Ford's face when we tell him about today!" Rosemary chuckled in amusement, unsure of what exactly a "grunkle" was, but was still happy to show her new friends around her home.

"Well, come along, you two! We're burning daylight!" And with that said, her wings buzzed rapidly and she flew straight towards the forest and towards her village. Mabel jumped in glee and was ready to follow.

"Whoo-hoo! Let's go, Dipperoo!" she cheered, merrily following behind Rosemary as they neared in the direction of the forest. Dipper soon joined in on the pursuit, but even so, as much as he didn't want to come across as a burden to Rosemary or any other faeries, he couldn't help but to let his nervousness show again.

Even if Rosemary was being genuine and truthful in her words, he still hoped that this adventure wouldn't turn into one of peril or disaster or even, God forbid, a dividing war between humans and faeries of all things. But still, he was hoping to stay positive and figured to at least see how this day turns out with an open mind...even though he still had a sliver of doubt still lingering inside him.

'_I really hope this turns out okay..._' Dipper fretfully thought to himself as he and Mabel followed Rosemary deep into the woods and towards the path leading to the faeries' home.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

* * *

**And there was the first chapter to my latest GF story.**

**Basically, I've been hoping to actually write a story of the twins discovering something supernatural in Gravity Falls, so upon looking up any anomalies through the Gravity Falls wiki, I wanted to try and shed some light to a supernatural being, this obviously being the faeries that live in the Gravity Falls forest.**

**Next chapter, I will try and convey more of the vast and unknown sections of the Gravity Falls forest, as well as the faeries' village, along with an introduction to some other faeries to boot. Also, apologies if this story's starting to become rather wordy as well, as well as it feeling rushed, what with Dipper suddenly feeling like he's imposing in on the faeries. Please rate and review to see how this story is coming along and I'll be back with the next chapter hopefully soon!**

**~Thunderbyrd**


	2. Chapter 2: Fairly Odd Presence

**In response to Veor Hrdenda's review: **_**Thanks for your honest views of the story so far, though I sincerely apologize if the faerie concept wasn't as what you have expected. Admittedly, I wanted to try something of a light-hearted supernatural story before I could sink my teeth into something more suspenseful in future. I guess you can say that I wanted to show that not all the creatures and monsters of Gravity Falls want to try and kill Dipper and Mabel (not that the show didn't convey that already), but rest assured, this story will include a threat of some sort, just not really in the form of a faerie. :)**_

**Chapter Two is now a go! When we last seen our mystery-solving duo, they have finally managed to discover a faerie after searching in the forest for a while. Although, despite the genuine affability that our new faerie ally was showing, Dipper may feel that there may be a bit of hostility b/w the rest of the faerie clan and their views on humans.**

**Will Dipper's fears and doubts come to fruition? Will the faeries treat the twins as pariahs of some sort? Read on and let's see how this goes, shall we?**

**Gravity Falls is owned by Alex Hirsch and Disney. (I do not own any of its characters nor its properties. This is purely a non-profit fanfic made for fun.)**

* * *

**THE FAERIES OF THE FALLS**

**CHAPTER TWO: FAIRLY ODD PRESENCE**

"So, you're saying you two and the rest of the town banded together to thwart this villain causing havoc to your town? What did you all call it again, exactly?"

"Weirdmageddon. But, in the end, we all managed to kick Bill's triangular butt _and_ we got him turned to stone afterwards!"

"Ah, most impressive, dearie! I was wondering what was happening when the sky turned red and such...luckily, me and the rest of the faeries were safe and sound in our village at the time...now then, what else did you say you've encountered during last summer again? Something about a…'Summerween monster'?"

"Oh, yeah, that! Well, what happened was-"

Since the Pines twins have finally managed to discover an elusive faerie during their travels through the Gravity Falls forest, Mabel was having the time of her life with their recently-met faerie friend, a red-haired and kind-hearted female named Rosemary, as the Pines girl was excitedly telling Rosemary of nearly all the adventures she and Dipper had during their last summer at the Falls.

As Mabel was enthusiastically talking Rosemary's ear off, with the faerie girl patiently listening to her new human friend in amusement and curiosity, Dipper was trailing a couple of feet behind the two females as they all strolled down the dirt lane leading towards the village, his nose now back into the pages of the first Journal as he continued to read up on the page regarding the forest faeries once again.

At the start of this journey, he was beyond elated in hoping of finding the home of these faeries to record it in the Journal's archives. However, after being reminded of when a couple of faeries had strayed away from their home and wound up nearly getting killed by any humans nearby, his confidence slowly shriveled up and was instead replaced with doubt and concern. He was worried that the faeries would harbor a major grudge between them and the humans, and he didn't want to cause any trouble towards them.

Still, he tried to keep those concerning thoughts to himself and kept himself busy by reading his Grunkle Ford's Journal, his eyes glued to the article explaining about the faeries in relation.

"_Based upon European folklore, the faeries who live in a deep and reclusive part of the Gravity Falls forest are said to be as mysterious as they are magical. Reportedly, these creatures living in the woods had originally hailed from Europe before a small clan of faeries had managed to travel to the States, traversing across the country for a safe and proper home before they arrived to Oregon, choosing the dense forestry surrounding the town of Gravity Falls as their new home. Reasons for why they left Europe for the U.S.A. and when exactly they arrived to the country however are currently unknown._"

"_Nowadays, these faeries have grown their populace into a full community of hard-working, nature-loving, and benevolent creatures, where they would tend to the forest's trees, fauna, and wildlife in their small, homemade village in the northwestern part of the woods. In spite of their elusiveness, these faeries can tend to be too curious for their own good regarding the outside world and, on some occasions, they would even exit the sanctuary of their village to explore outside the forest._"

"_Despite their easily-captivated nature, these peaceful faeries prove to be genuine kind-hearted in nature, wanting to help out any hurt animals or lost newcomers in their area in any way they can. Bright-eyed, free-spirited, and young at heart, these creatures can also be capable of being very hard-working and surprisingly strong for their short stature._"

"_In addition, their faerie dust can be used as something of a knock-out gas that affects some creatures, namely the unicorns who reside west of the forest. Because of this, the faeries and the unicorn hold something of a rivalry, even if the faeries aren't willing to wage war with said unicorns._"

Dipper paused after reading that last paragraph, looking up at the giggling pair of girls in front of him and then looking back down at the book. His face wrinkled with discomfort. He really wasn't sure how to feel about all this and he really didn't want to come across as a monster towards Rosemary.

And even if his doubts about the faeries abhorring the humans were untrue, he also didn't want to wind up being rude to Rosemary neither, especially of how nice and unwaveringly sweet she was to him and Mabel. So, in the end, Dipper figured it best to simply grin and bear it for now. He walked faster to catch up to the chatting Mabel and Rosemary before clearing his throat shyly.

"Ahem, so, uh, Rosemary? From what I gathered on this map," noted Dipper, "Mabel and I were supposed to have come across some sort of green tunnel that leads to your village. Would you happen to know anything about that?"

Rosemary scratched her chin in thought, trying to think about what Dipper was referring to. Luckily, it wasn't long until it suddenly clicked in her mind. "'Green tunnel'? Oh, _oh_, wait, I know what you mean!" she realized with a smile, "We'll actually be reaching that in a few feet from here!"

She then flew farther away from the twins, leaving a thin trail of fairy dust behind her as she traveled faster down the road. "Come on, you two!" she called happily, hiking up the bag of pollen tied on her backside like a makeshift backpack, "We're nearly there!"

Dipper and Mabel looked at each other with raised eyebrows and shared a shrug, now both running down the path, following Rosemary towards this aforementioned green tunnel.

* * *

It hadn't actually taken long until Rosemary, Dipper, and Mabel had all finally reached this particular landmark, and when they, it was suffice to say that the twins were surprised to see what this green tunnel actually was!

In front of the twins and faerie stood what appeared to be some sort of archway, made entirely of rich, green leaves, brambles, ivy, and vines! The arches stood at around fifteen feet in height, seemingly stretching on for miles. The tree tunnel was wall-to-wall greenery, from its high overhead canopy to back down on the grass-clad ground. Thin beams of sunlight shone through what little openings the tunnel could produce, giving the tunnel an almost magical-looking illumination.

Mabel and Dipper stood at the tunnel's entrance for a few tense seconds, awestruck at the beautiful passageway before them, too amazed to try and even utter a word between themselves. The tunnel seemed to go on for, at least, a couple of miles. It was a straight path, with seemingly no curves or hazards to encounter along the trio's path.

Rosemary fluttered by the side and smiled at the twins' amazed expressions. "Well, you two ready to see our village?" she offered.

The twins snapped from their surprised stupor and glanced back at the awaiting faerie. They looked back and forth between the vine-clad tunnel and Rosemary, still unable to comprehend words for what was transpiring at the moment. Rosemary playfully rolled her eyes and stifled back a giggle. Thankfully, she was able to get them moving again as she flew back up to them, grabbed each of her hands, and gently led them towards the tunnel, leading towards her beloved, hidden home.

"Come on, you two…" she coaxed lightheartedly, "My village is located at the other side of this tunnel, so we must make haste if you two want to see the village before it gets too dark!"

That was enough to finally cause the twins to kick it into high-gear, both of them not wanting to stay out in the forest until duck fell, despite that it wouldn't be dark for a few more hours. But still, the twins and their faerie ally kept on jogging through the tunnel.

The sunlight from outside hitting against the leaves seemed to give the already green-hued passageway and even more greener vibrance. And with the soft sounds of birds chirping from far away combined with the gentle whistle of a summer's breeze, it gave the trio a beautiful sense of tranquility, all content to be travelling through the calming scenery that Mother Nature herself created.

The tunnel also didn't appear to be too, too long of a walk as it turned out, so to pass the time, they decided to engage themselves in a bit of friendly conversation as they drew nearer to the destination. And it came to no surprise when the least talkative person amongst the trio was Dipper, of course.

He certainly wasn't meaning to be so quiet this time, but yet again, he couldn't help but to still feel a wee bit fidgety about the possible outcome of their journey. Sure, it'd be great to finally discover where exactly the faeries of Gravity Falls do live, but at the same time, he was worried about how the other faeries could react to having a full-fledged human visiting their village.

As he kept fretting to himself, Rosemary seemed to feel his highly-strung aura close by and flew closer to Mabel's ear, a playful, though still inwardly-concerned smile creeping on her dimpled face.

"Your brother seems to be quite stressed out again…" she commented softly to her, as not to gain attention to the male human nearby. Mabel snickered gently.

"Yeah, that's just how he rolls…" she answered knowingly. The two girls shared a soft laugh before Rosemary gently fluttered closer to the silently-anxious Dipper, carefully and delicately tapping on his shoulder, causing him to snap out of his worrying to look down at the motherly faerie just below his head.

"Dipper, sweetie?" she asked with a teasing, yet kind smile, "You're still not worrying about what the other faeries are going to think about you and Mabel, are you?"

Dipper swallowed thickly, looking at both his sister and fellow faerie friends simultaneously. They both sported big, knowing grins on their faces, as if they already knew what Dipper's answer was going to be. It wasn't very long until Dipper finally caved in, knowing he was going to be found out sooner or later.

"...Y-Y-Yeah…" he admitted softly, "...k-kinda…"

Mabel rolled her ears and chuckled, fully knowing how her beloved twin brother functioned. "Aw, c'mon, Dip-Dip!" she smirked, giving Dipper a soft, playful punch to the arm, "You seriously ain't getting cold feet over seein' some lil' faeries, are ya?"

Dipper winced nervously. "Well...I mean…" he began, trying to piece together his statement in a coherent fashion, "I-I just don't w-want to seem like an intruder to the rest of your clan, i-is all…" Rosemary shook her head and chuckled softly.

"Dipper, I promise you and your sister won't be considered as intruders!" she reminded, "You both are guests in our village, and I'm certain everyone at the village would enjoy having your company!"

Dipper still didn't seem convinced. He sighed softly and looked down upon the grassy lane as the group were reaching the tunnel's halfway point. "R-Rosemary?" he asked timidly.

Rosemary turned around again and gave him a soft smile. "Yes, Dipper?" she replied kindly.

Dipper rubbed his left arm nervously, hoping what he would say next wouldn't come out wrong. "Beg pardon for saying this, but I don't see how you would be so willing to invite a pair of humans to your own home?" he stated shyly, "I mean, I'm sure you're aware of what humans are capable of, right?"

Rosemary's smile faltered a tad. "What do you mean by that, dearie?"

"Well, I mean…" replied Dipper, scratching the back of his head, "You know, most humans can tend to fight with each other, cause pollution, and all sorts of terrible things on top of that! Quite frankly, compared to your species, we're basically monsters!"

Mabel noticed Dipper's growing distress and gave him a scared, though highly-concerned look. She knew Dipper's tendency to be a nerve-wracked worrier was something to be expected, but something in her mind told her that Dipper listing off the reasons why humans were considered as a violent, ignorant race weren't going to bode well with Rosemary at all. She carefully placed a hand on Dipper's shoulder and shot him a look that was laced with sternness, an expression that she hardly uses ever.

"Dipper, we really shouldn't mention that mean stuff to Rosemary. We don't want to scare her with all this talk about why humans can be so mean, especially when she's been so nice to us!" Mabel instructed, trying to sound serious, but not too harsh as not to upset him. Dipper gulped and blushed, still unconvinced.

"But it's true, Mabel! We-"

"Dipper! Mabel!"

The twins had ceased their argument before it could come into fruition, both caught off-guard by the sound of Rosemary's motherly tone. They both calmed down and stopped in their tracks, both unable to speak with only the sound of the wind and the birds outside the tunnel filled the still air.

Judging from how firm her voice sounded, Dipper and Mabel figured that Rosemary was going to be quite upset with them bringing up these facts about humans, but instead, they were both surprised to still see her giving them both a patient, motherly smile. Rosemary let out a calming sigh, then she once again grabbed one each of the twin's giant hands into her own and closed her eyes in silence.

Soon enough, a strong, yet sweet-smelling odor wafted through the air. Rosemary, whose aura was beginning to shine brighter than usual, began emitting the odor in the form of a harmless fog-like vapor as a means to help calm the twins' minds more easily. The aroma smelled of a beautiful concoction of fresh spring flowers, its scent safely sprinkled all around the trio. Thankfully, one whiff of the smell was enough to relax the twins greatly, as if they'd had a giant weight taken off their shoulders.

With that taken care of, Rosemary opened her eyes again, her shining irises now looking straight back into the twins' eyes. Because of this, the twins had her full attention at last.

"Children, please…" she cooed softly and sincerely, "There really is no need to be so worried. I'm certain all my friends back in the village would adore having you both as guests in our home…"

The twins stared agape at Rosemary, surprised of how well she was taking all of this. However, they were about to say something when Rosemary kindly cut them off.

"Now, before you two say anything," began Rosemary, "I understand about the whole aspect of humans being disrespectful towards Earth, and trust me, I do find it upsetting. We used to lose many members of my clan back then due to certain humans being ignorant and careless with their actions, either that or they'd wind up injured or lost whenever they'd leave camp."

She paused upon seeing how guilty and sad Mabel and Dipper looked right now, despite of the calming odor clearing their minds, so she simply rubbed their fingers tenderly, her kind smile never leaving her face.

"But, _please_, you two...don't think I'm blaming you two for any of this, nor that me and my friends have some sort of grudge against your kind…" assured Rosemary before tensions and emotions could go out of control, "Sometimes, we faeries can get a little bit _too_ curious for our good. Besides, I'm sure at least some of those occurrences were accidental…"

Rosemary then let go of each of the twins' hands and flapped up right towards their faces. She placed her right hand on Mabel's left cheek and her left hand on Dipper's right cheek, her eyes still looking into her human friends' own.

"All I'm saying," Rosemary finished genuinely, "is that you two are more than welcome to visit our home…okay?"

By now, the mind-calming aroma had finally evaporated away and the twins slowly felt their worries temporarily slip away. They had both finally managed to take Rosemary's words to heart, and although they kept switching back from being excited to feeling nervous during the span of this entire journey, Mabel and Dipper _did_ genuinely hope to find the faerie village, and now, they were both able to fully enter the village _and_ learn about the faerie's culture at the same time!

However, even with the twins completely on-board with the idea once more, something crossed Dipper's mind, something he knew he must address to Rosemary. "Uh...Rosemary?" he asked softly.

Rosemary looked towards Dipper. "Yes, Dipper?" she asked. Dipper coughed awkwardly, hoping what he said wouldn't rub her off the wrong way.

"I mean...not to sound rude, but I still don't get how you can be so trusting over having two humans that you've just met into your home…" Dipper admitted with a soft tone. However, instead of being offended, Rosemary seemed more thoughtful than anything. She pondered and scratched her chin before looking back to the boy with a knowing smile.

"Well...let's say that this visit can act as a social experiment to see how faeries and human can commingle face-to-face then. Perhaps we can learn more about human culture just as we teach you two about faerie culture." she mused thoughtfully, giving the twins a wink.

The twins, admittedly, hadn't thought of it like that before, but still, regardless of their worries, they still trusted Rosemary and they figured to at least give it a shot.

'_Well, when in Rome…_' thought Dipper with a tiny shrug. He then flashed Rosemary a small smile and gave her an agreeing nod. "Okay, Rosemary...I fully trust you…"

Mabel smiled widely, her braces twinkling in the tunnel's reflective light. "Me too!" she added happily. Rosemary beamed brighter than ever, her excitement still flowing through her veins.

"Well then, let's not waste any time then!" she rallied cheerfully. And with that, the trio then bolted down through the tunnel, aimed straight for Rosemary's home with bright smiles on their faces. As they neared the tunnel's exit, a worrying thought suddenly sprang into Rosemary's mind.

Although she was confident that 99% of her clan would be perfectly fine with having these two humans visit their home for a while, there was that measly, little 1% that wouldn't be too on-board with that idea. For the first time since she met the Pines twins, Rosemary felt her smile drop slightly, thinking about that one faerie who would be quite adamant throughout this certain event.

'_I just hope _he _wouldn't too upset upon seeing humans visit our home, though…_' Rosemary thought nervously to herself. Even if she and her other faerie friends were known to be quite hospitable, she knew there was one certain faerie amongst them that wouldn't be too keen on having humans in a faerie village, even if said humans were harmless children.

And perchance if something _did_ go awry with the humans, such as if they caused an accident in their home in some way, Rosemary knew he'd be willing to blame them or call them monsters once everything was said and done.

But still, she decided to give that thought the benefit of the doubt as she slowly forced back a smile, as not to worry her new human guests as the three friends finally exited the tunnel of pure vegetation and were all steadily jogged closer to where the fabled and concealed faerie village was located.

* * *

**FIVE MINUTES LATER...**

* * *

After having traveled a few more kilometers through more dense forestry, Rosemary, Dipper, and Mabel had finally reached their destination, and the twins couldn't have believed their eyes and the sight of it all. The bright-eyed faerie fluttered lightly down the lane, her wings buzzing with excited delight as the group drawing closer towards the humble village. They had soon came across the entrance to the village, which was basically two tall trees at the end of the dirt path, their branches producing, thick, low-hanging vines that were long enough to touch the ground, helping to securely shield the village from the outside world.

Rosemary and the twins carefully brushed past through the wall of thick vines before they had all finally succeeded in actually entering into the faeries' domain, to which when they did as such, the Pines twins could only gasp in absolute surprise, their eyes widening to the size of dinner plates upon seeing the beauty that was before them.

The trees surrounding them were just as tall and grand as the rest of the forest, but what was really striking about the trees were their colors. The leaves on each tree around them had their own brilliant and vibrant shade of color; red, yellow, orange, and green on some trees, and they were even some trees that had colored leaves that one wouldn't expect a tree would have, like magenta, lavender, or purple! Constructed around the lower bases of said trees had homemade, round-shaped houses for the faeries, all built out of strong wood. The homes wrapped around the trunks of the trees like snakes coiling around a tree branch, all securely fastened to the trees without any straining. They almost looked like miniature tree houses!

Vast garden beds of fresh-smelling and brightly-colored flowers were seen flourishing around on the ground, along with a freshwater stream that flowed through on the northeast section of the village. The stream also housed a makeshift water wheel that helped supply clean, refreshing water into the faeries through a wood-built aqueduct system that ran into each of the faeries' houses.

The view was so beautiful that Mabel and Dipper almost didn't notice the main attraction of the village: the faeries themselves!

Dozens of small, human-like faeries that were about as tall as a human's hand were seen flying peacefully all around their humble camp, all either busily doing regular chores, such as fetching water from the streams or planting seeds of food and flowers in the numerous gardens or they were busy relaxing, tending to any small animals nearby (mainly being birds, squirrels, and rabbits), or were simply merrily chatting with each other. They were all too busy to notice the arrival of Rosemary and her two new human friends at the moment.

Sunlight gleamed down through any openings that the trees were able to create, its healthy glow reflecting across the faeries' sparkling and pastel-colored complexions. The sun also seemed to make their colorful auras seem to shine brighter. Dipper and Mabel stood there stunned in awe for another few silent seconds, prompting a giddy giggle from Rosemary.

"Goodness, me…" she tittered in amusement, "you two sure love to gawk at nature a lot lately...you both look as if you both never been to a faerie village before!"

"Th-That's because we never have…" gasped Dipper, finally able to find his voice again. Even the talkative Mabel was too beside her to speak up. Rosemary chuckled sweetly to her friends.

"Oh, you humans truly are something!" she mused good-heartedly, stowing away her bag of pollen to the side. She then spotted a large, tall tree with a thick trunk and pink-colored leaves close by, an idea now forming in her head.

"You two hide behind that tree over there," she instructed excitedly with a big smile, "I'll introduce you both to the others as a surprise! Just come out when I call out for you!" The twins smiled and nodded back. Without question, they then quickly ducked behind the tree, now concealed away from any wandering eyes from the faerie villagers.

Rosemary giggled happily and flew closer to the village, whistling loudly to garner everyone's attention. "Hello, everyone! I'm home!" she sang out.

Upon hearing Rosemary's call, some of the faeries buzzing about suddenly noticed the arrival of their friend. Two faeries in particular, that were just passing through the water wheel, had especially caught Rosemary's attention.

One of the faeries was a teenaged-looking male. He had blonde hair styled in a Jewfro hairstyle, with matching green eyes, a goldenrod-colored skin tone, and he wore a bright yellow tunic, with the collar made up of small, puffy, round, and yellow flowers. The other faerie next to him was a female, whom had fluffy, voluminous, dark green hair tied down with a blue headband. She also had minty green skin, dark brown eyes, and she wore a long dress made up of lavender leaves that reached down to her shoeless feet. Her facial expressions also seemed to showcase her calming personality as well, complete with half-lidded eyes and a nonplussed smile.

The two faeries had just finished gathered twigs and sticks to be used to fix part of the village's aqueduct until they both gasped in delight upon seeing Rosemary from far away.

"Sage, look!" ushered the male, blonde-haired faerie excitedly in a light, Australian accent, "Rosemary's home!"

"Righteous!" chimed his green-haired comrade, a peaceful smile gracing her lips, "Come on, Wattle, let's go see her!"

The faerie duo then dropped their sticks on the ground and joyously flew off to greet their friend. Other faeries close by had also been aware of Rosemary's arrival and they too followed Sage and Wattle to say "hello" to their returning friend. None of them had happen to see the Pines twins hiding away, thankfully.

Rosemary was soon unexpectedly met with a chorus of greetings and cheers as a group of her fellow faerie friends had joined her to welcome her back home. She then found herself in the midst of being caught in a group hug by the other faeries, with about all of them greeting her and asking how her afternoon was. And instead of looking overwhelmed or annoyed, Rosemary simply laughed and smiled happily, wholly content with being reunited by her close-knit friends once again.

Dipper and Mabel still hiding behind the tree, stayed respectfully silent and watched the scene before them. Mabel giggled in amusement. "Aw, friendly lil' bunch, aren't they?" she commented quietly, eliciting a chuckle and a nod from Dipper.

"They also seem to be quite productive too." he added impressively, "I mean, look at their village here! Their homes, their infrastructure. Everything here looks rustic and well-crafted!"

Mabel giggled. "I know," she agreed, "It looks like something out of that cartoon we used to watch when we were young. Y'know, the one with the blue gnomes with the little, white hats?"

As the twins chatted between themselves from afar, the faeries then finally released their massive hug towards Rosemary, with Sage piping up first amongst the group.

"Everything go okay, Rosemary?" Sage asked with a small grin, "You seemed to be, like, gone for a long while…"

"Yeah, mate, you've had us all worried for a bit!" added Wattle. Rosemary giggled in her hand.

"I said that I was only going to be out for about an hour." she reminded playfully, "I had to make sure I gathered enough pollen to use as food for us." Then, she casted the crowding group of faeries an apologetic look.

"Besides," she admitted, rubbing her arm in embarrassment, "I also managed to bring along a couple of new friends…" The faerie crowd gave Rosemary and then each other puzzled looks, and unsure of what she meant by until Wattle spoke up.

"'New friends'? Rose, ya silly sheila, what do ya mean by that?" he chortled curiously. Rosemary cleared her throat and let out a sigh to ease her nerves. This was now or never…

With the cat out of the bag, Rosemary turned towards the pink-leaved tree and whistled loudly to gain the twin's attention. "Okay, you two, come on out now!"

From the perspective of the other faeries, they were all half-expecting their new guests to be another group of faeries or maybe even an animal or another mysterious creature of sorts. What they weren't expecting however was the appearance of a pair of giant, humanoid-like beings clomping towards them like angry ogres.

Some faeries gasped in shock, others let out surprised yelps, few began chatting and whispering to others in the crowd. And yet, none of them even thought about fleeing or screaming in utter terror. This didn't go unnoticed by the twins, and naturally, the one who was beginning to be the most nervous during all this was Dipper. The silent, shocked expressions seen upon each of the faeries' faces were enough to confirm Dipper's fears.

'_Yeah..._this_ is gonna end well…_' he thought sarcastically and he and Mabel carefully joined up with the group, the height of the faeries only slightly coming up to their feet.

Amongst the crowd, Wattle, now seeing who she was referring to, spotted the two and suddenly let out a surprised yelp at the size of them. He found himself stumbling back on his behind, his wings having stopped fluttering in surprise. Sage, meanwhile, felt her eyes bug out in stunned silence, which was a rare occurrence for someone as permanently calm and half-baked as her. All she could manage to utter was an amazed and shocked "Woah…" under her breath.

The rest of the faerie clan had also finally succeeded in finding out about their newest visitors, and judging by the size of these visitors, they had all managed to go completely shell-shocked and silent altogether. The reaction made Dipper and Mabel quite nervous and the amount of silence carried across the crowd wasn't helping much.

Wattle flew back up in the air after his fall and breathed out in awe. "Crikey..." he whistled, "those are some giant-looking faeries!"

Rosemary rubbed the back of her head in awkwardness, a faint blush appearing on her already-rosy face. "That's because they're not faeries, Wattle…" she admitted lamely, "These two are actually humans…"

At the very mention of that word, Wattle felt his wings freeze once again, but thankfully, Sage quickly flew up and supported him by grabbing him by his armpits, ensuring that he'd stay on his feet this time. Wattle shook his dizzy head in amazement. The rest of the faeries chattered to each other upon seeing the pair of humans before them, most of their expressions ranging from awe, intrigue, and surprise.

"Humans have found our village?" asked one faerie.

"Do you think they're nice?" wondered another one.

"They certainly seem harmless." commented another.

"They look so big...even as children!"

"They both look kinda nervous...are we intimidating them?"

The huddled crowd of faeries all whispering to one another seemed to make the twins a bit on-edge again, hoping that their presence wasn't causing any trouble or fear. The faeries didn't seem to _look_ fearful in any way, but it still didn't help that much. Dipper leaned in closer to the red-headed faerie.

"A-Are they okay?" he whispered nervously at Rosemary.

"Are we scaring them?" asked Mabel softly. Rosemary simply smiled back in reassurance.

"Oh, they'll be fine, dears," she soothed, "It's not exactly often we have humans show up in our village, you know…" She then flew up closer to the crowding group of awestruck faeries and cleared her throat, garnering their attention towards her.

"Everyone!" she announced, trying to soothe down the surprised crowd, "I understand you all are shocked upon this reveal, but trust me, you all have nothing to worry about! These humans were hoping to find a faerie village all day today!."

The other faeries chattered between themselves yet again, unsure on how to process all of this at the moment. Luckily, Rosemary anticipated their uncertainty and gave them all an assuring grin. "I know it's shocking to see humans visit our village, seeing as how we've been tucked away for many years, but everything is fine! These humans are very nice and they promised me that don't intend to cause any harm to us or to our home."

That snippet of reassurance did manage to elicit some relief to the faeries, their uncertainty slowly morphing into pure delight and curiosity. Rosemary beamed happily and soared back between the Pines twin, figuring that it's time for a more proper introduction.

"This here is Dipper Pines," she presented to the slightly-nervous boy, "And this is Mabel Pines." she finished, gesturing towards the plucky, brace-faced girl, "They both were hoping to learn more about us and our culture so that they can document it in their Grunkle's journal!"

The faeries seemed to be quite interested in that idea as they conversed excitedly with one another once again, this time in a more positive manner. However, one faerie hidden in the crowd looked more puzzled than willing. He raised his hand up, gaining Rosemary's attention.

"Oh, yes, you have something to say?" Rosemary asked politely. The faerie in question brought his hand down and coughed in response.

"Uh...what's a 'Grunkle'?" the faerie asked in confusion. Some other faeries soon murmured in agreement, unsure of this odd term. Rosemary coughed and blushed in embarrassment.

"I, uh...will explain that later…" she answered awkwardly with a slanted smile, "But for now, I hope you all will treat our new guests here with as much kindness and respect as we already show towards each other!"

Rosemary then turned around to face the quiet twins, giving them both an encouraging look. "Well?" she whispered playfully, "No need to be scared, just say 'hi'!"

The two siblings stood at attention, a bit anxious to have so many little faerie eyes staring up at them all at once, but they still kept a friendly expression upon their faces either way. Mabel was first to greet herself with a joyful wave of her hand.

"Hiya, everyone!" she exclaimed in her usual Mabel fashion, "Mabel's the name and being fun is my game!" She then pulled Dipper close to her in a side hug, all while giving the faeries a toothy, brace-covered smile.

"And this is my all-favorite brother in the world, Dipper!" she introduced happily, "We're both twins!" Dipper chuckled weakly and timidly. He gave the faerie clan a tiny, shy wave.

"Uh...hello!" squeaked Dipper from within Mabel's loving grasp. In no time at all, the other faeries soon greeted the twins right back with a chorus of kind-hearted and friendly "hello's" and "how are you's?". Clearly, they all looked sincerely happy to have the twins amongst their family after all.

Sage and Wattle, in particular, both looked rather intrigued, still beside themselves in awe upon the sight of these friendly-looking humans.

"Bonza!" Wattle gasped impressively to Sage, "I'd never thought I'd see a real human before in my life, let only _two_ of 'em in our home!"

"Neither would I, man…" breathed Sage, still in awe. Rosemary chuckled softly from the sidelines, now flying up closer to the group once again.

"Now then," she began, "does anyone have any questions they'd like to ask our-?"

Soon enough, before Rosemary could finish, the Pines siblings immediately found themselves quickly bombarded with a sea of questions that the other faeries began prattling off in excitement. They all buzzed around the human duo like bees in a beehive, jabbering and greeting them with curiously.

"What kinds of materials do you use for your clothes?"

"Do humans live in trees like us?"

"Do all humans have a twin like you two?"

"What do humans eat exactly?"

"Are other humans just as adorable as you both are?"

The twins, unable to answer the oncoming slew of questions all at once, could only gawk in surprise by the faerie's sudden enthusiasm, seeing as not even five minutes ago, they all looked beside themselves with utter mystification. The crowd were so attracted and preoccupied with the Pines twins. So much so that they hadn't even counted upon another member of their clan returning home through the eastern side of the village.

Although, judging by the sudden look of shock spread across this one faerie's face upon seeing a pair of genuine humans within his own home, one could tell that this could only spell trouble...

The torrent of questions continued, leaving two awkward and stuttering humans in their wake, both unsure of what to say. Rosemary laughed good-naturedly at their staggered expressions, she almost forgot that her friends could tend to be way too curious sometimes.

Before the twins could feel anymore overwhelmed, she cleared her throat and tried to bring the commotion to a gentle halt. "Everyone, please, settle down now!" she called out politely, "You'll all have your questions answered soon enough!"

Thankfully, Rosemary brought the crowd under control, with the faeries now reeling back their boundless curiosity, despite how awestruck and filled with excitement they all were. Once again, Rosemary rallied the faeries together, now coming up with another way to get things going between the faeries and the humans.

"Okay, so maybe we can try a bit of one-on-one introductions instead. We can tell Dipper and Mabel here about our roles here in the village before we show them around." suggested Rosemary. Everyone seemed to agree with this idea wholeheartedly, but however, before they could form another enthusiastic riot again, two certain voices wailed out from the crowd.

"Oi, Rose, we wanna go first!"

"Yeah, pick us! We wanna meet these groovy dudes first!"

Rosemary giggled and shook her head, knowing those pair of excited voices anywhere. "Okay, Wattle, Sage, you two can start things off!"

Sage and Wattle whooped and laughed merrily, with some other faeries groaning sadly for not being first. The yellow and green-themed faerie duo waded through the large crowd and flew right up to Dipper and Mabel's faces, smiling warmly all the way and ready to introduce themselves..

"G'Day, ya two!" Wattle started off. "The name's Wattle, and this here is Sage!" He gestured towards his green-colored ally, who simply shot the twins a friendly peace-sign with her right hand.

"Salutations, children!" greeted Sage peacefully, "Lovely to have you two in our home!" Mabel giggled girlishly.

"Well, it's lovely to see you two!" Mabel chortled back. Wattle then noticed how quiet Dipper seemed to be, and without warning, he quickly grabbed him by his index finger, in hopes to do a sort of handshake (given how tiny his own hands were). Dipper was completely off-guard and gasped.

"C'mon, ya big ol' bloke!" smiled Wattle zealously, "No need to be shy! Put 'er there, mate!"

And then, nothing knowing his own strength, Wattle's impromptu handshake wound up causing poor Dipper to jostle uncomfortably about in the place. Dipper wailed and stammered as Wattle kept shaking his finger about for a little while. Everyone in the group laughed good-heartedly at the scene, including Mabel and Rosemary. Luckily, before Dipper could wind up feeling more shaken up, Sage stepped in to ease Wattle down.

"Like, slow your roll, dude…" chuckled Sage, gently holding down Wattle's arm, "We don't wanna startle this poor fella!" Wattle, realizing what his over-excitement was causing, chuckled nervously and ceased the handshake altogether.

"Oops! Sorry 'bout that, mate! Got a little carried away there!" apologized Wattle with a small blush. Dipper rubbed his slightly sore finger, but still smiled kindly back, his motion sickness easing up.

"It's okay!" replied Dipper, "I kinda forgot that faeries are stronger than they seem…"

Sage smiled. "Well, we kinda have to be to build a village like this. It took us, like, months to craft all these homes and such for the time being…"

"I'm not surprised!" Mabel commented with a grin, "Everything here looks so beautiful!" Sage blushed and giggled at that compliment.

"Well, thanks, dear!" Sage replied modestly, "It really is such a groovy home! And with all these flowers blooming and with so many animals passing by in our village, it truly is paradise!" Wattle chuckled at his friend's swooning.

"Yep, if there's one thing ya need to know about Sage," he commented to Dipper and Mabel, "is that she'll jabber on about nature for days and days. She always tends to the gardens and local animals here every day." Rosemary then fluttered over to them with a smile.

"Indeed," added Rosemary, now rejoining the group again, "Each of us here play a special role in our village to keep things running nicely. Sage handles with the garden work, we have others that tend to the animals and to fix or build our homes and buildings. Even Wattle here helps out with cooking our meals!" The twins grew quite interested with that last statement.

"Ooh, you do cooking, Wattle?" Mabel gasped in awe. Wattle smiled broadly and nodded.

"Right-o!" he confirmed, "We use bits of foodstuffs like fruit, veggies, pollen, flowers, and even tree sap to make our viddles here at home, and yours truly can make a real banger of a meal, if I do say so myself!" Dipper whistled impressively.

"Do you now?" he mused with intrigue. Wattle hummed confidently.

"I _do!_" he repeated assuredly, "I can prove it by making you humans a welcoming lunch if ya both would like, free of charge?" The twins were surprised and delighted by Wattle's generous offer.

"That's sound great!" chirped Mabel brightly, "All me and Dipper had to pack for food was just some trail mix…" Even Dipper was interested with this kindly proposal.

"That's actually sound quite good…" he agreed, although a smidge of guilt began to show through him once more, "...th-that is if we aren't forcing you to do it, or if it's not too much work!" Wattle smiled widely and waved off Dipper's concern.

"Ain't nothing to it, chum!" he assured, "And besides, you both are our guests _and_ our new friends, so it's no trouble at all!" Suddenly, he remembered something that made him quite giddy. "Ooh, I got a _great_ recipe to serve to you both later, it's gonna be a ripper, for sure!"

Sage chuckled in her hand, knowing how passionate Wattle was with his love for cooking. "Well, before we can do that, let's just have our new friends here get more acquainted with the rest here. I wanna to speak with Rosemary for a sec, if that's cool with her?" suggested Sage. Rosemary raised an eyebrow, but smiled nonetheless.

"Of course!" she agreed, she turned her head back to the twins. "Dipper, Mabel, I'll be right back! Just make yourselves at home! Wattle too had settled down his chattering and smiled, opting to join the two female faeries as well.

"Alrighty!" He, Rosemary, and Sage then turned towards the twins, waving them goodbye as they flew off and away from the crowd. "See ya in a bit, mates!"

The twins waved them goodbye in return. "Bye, guys!" they called out happily. However, just as that happened, it wasn't long until the twins soon wound up getting hounded by the faerie crowd once more, blitzed with more questions and introductions left and right as they swooped all around the twins like angry flies.

As this was happening, Rosemary, Wattle, and Sage were fluttering away from the group, far enough to have themselves a private conversation, but not enough to stray too far from the rest of the clan.

"Well, Rose, ya certainly made a great catch finding these two fellas today!" chirped Wattle. Sage nodded calmly, her smile growing softly.

"Indeed..." she mused in agreement, "I'm really getting some positive vibes from these two..."

Her smile began to waver a bit as a thought crossed her mind, making her think about what she wanted to ask Rosemary about. "...although, my aura is sensing that the human boy seems to be quite troubled and shy...is he always like this?" she asked worryingly. Rosemary smiled softly in understanding.

"Sometimes, according to what his sister told me. Dipper usually tends to be a bit of a worrier, but his heart really _is_ in a good place, trust me!" Rosemary replied with genuine affection, "I suppose he's worried about us faeries trying to co-exist with humans as a means to form a bond between us..."

Wattle sighed, feeling his smile droop down a bit. "Well, to be fair, I can't exactly blame the poor bloke after all..."

Rosemary raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, Wattle?" she asked. Wattle grimaced awkwardly.

"Well, eh, not to contradict ya and all, but just so you know, they both haven't come across _him_ just yet…" Wattle admitted awkwardly. Fully understanding where he was going with this, Rosemary winced and groaned softly. Of course, she had to be reminded of him again...

"Wattle's right, man…" agreed Sage softly, "We don't want him to scare off these dudes, they just got here…" Rosemary gulped. Somehow she knew she'd be found out sooner or later, but regardless, she stayed purely optimistic.

"Well...you see, I was hoping that this would be an opportunity for us faeries to try and get to know a human better, is all!" Rosemary explained truthfully, "Just to prove that there _are_ humans out there that wouldn't accidentally cause harm to any humans!"

She gently placed a hand on Wattle and Sage's respective shoulders, looking straight into their eyes with genuine sadness. "You both believe me on this, right?" she asked upsettingly. Sage gently slipped Rosemary's hand off her shoulder and grabbed it with both her own hands tenderly.

"Of course we do!" Sage replied sincerely, "Trust me, girl, we're both happy to have these two in our home!"

Wattle smiled softly in return, patting Rosemary's arm reassuringly. "We both can feel their auras, and we know they mean no harm…" he said, "We're just worried that-"

"_What in the name of God's green Earth is going on here!?_"

The faerie trio froze in place at the sudden, brash sound of another voice joining the group. Wattle gulped and trembled in fear.

"...that _he_ may come by to put an end to all of this…" Wattle finished off feebly.

The loud exclamation certainly didn't go unnoticed by Dipper, Mabel, and the rest of the faerie crowd. The crowd suddenly ceased their clamoring and all fluttered down on the ground at attention, all immediately quiet and writhing with slight fear. The twins looked down at the faeries, then back at each other. Their faces wrinkled with upmost confusion and concern.

The crowd of faeries then silently and respectfully parted ways to create a path, akin to Moses parting the Red Sea. Then, after a few quiet seconds, popping out from the crowd to head through the path came another faerie, a male one to be precise.

While the other faeries looked all dainty and cheerful in appearance, _this_ faerie was a completely different story! He was quite muscular on terms of his body-type, sporting a pair of well-pronounced triceps and a wide, rock-solid torso. He also appeared to be the tallest of the bunch (by about nine and a half inches, compared to a standard faerie's height being around seven inches at best). His other distinct feature was the chiseled face he was sporting, his expression looking quite stony and stern.

From the looks of this particular faerie, he looked like he could break a man's hand without even trying!

He had also maize-hued skin, striking steel gray eyes, short and scruffy chocolate brown hair (with matching chin stubble), and he wore an olive green Greek tunic with matching brown wool pants. And unlike the rest of his shoeless allies, this faerie _actually_ bothered to wear footwear, in the form of tan Chalcolithic leather shoes.

The faeries remained hushed and filled with anticipation as the muscular faerie buzzed importantly towards Rosemary and the suddenly uneasy twins. They both didn't like the looks of this cross-looking creature at all, and somehow, they knew this may only spell trouble. The twins even managed to spot something strapped to the back of this hulking faerie.

It turned out to be an old-fashioned quiver, used to store bow and arrows for archers, and as it turned out, his sling also contained a bow and a few arrows inside. Mabel and Dipper gulped in unison. They both knew right away that this faerie meant business. Rosemary certainly noticed her human friends' discomfort and could only sigh shakily, her positivity slowly beginning to diminish.

"...Oh, sweet mother of Mother Nature…" she lamented in an hushed whisper.

As expected, the day earlier had been full of promise and fun, and by now, it was now certainly going to take a turn for the worst...

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

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**And that was Chapter Two, my dudes and dudettes! Sorry for the bit of delay, I've managed to land a cleaner's job at my city's casino and I felt that that was top priority at the moment, plus I wanted to fine-tune this chapter to make sure it turned out at least decent. Anyhow, let's cap off this chapter with a buttload of facts regarding the faeries and their home in this part of the story!**

**-The inspiration for the faeries of Gravity Falls was pretty basic, if I could say that. Design-wise, the faeries are humanoids with pastel-colored skins and hair-colors, all pretty-faced and big-eyed, wearing clothes designed from leaves, flower petals, etc., though I took some liberties and made the faeries' apparel here to give them a more Greek-Ancient Rome feel to them. Name-wise, I simply gave them all names based upon flowers, trees, spices, and such to make them more earthy, with color schemes to match their respective plant name.**

**-On terms of personalities, the faeries, in some way, are essentially tiny, humanoid Care Bears; all forgiving and kind-hearted, without a single bad bone in their bodies. Two of the new faeries introduced this chapter are basically described as the following: ****Wattle is an excitable, but friendly go-getter, with a name shared from the national flower of Australia, the Golden Wattle (hence his accent), and ****Sage is a hippie-ish faerie with a permanently-calming smile and a positive outlook on life, much like how the sage herb can be used to clear negative energy when burned.**

**-In addition, Rosemary's ability to ease troubled minds with a fresh-smelling scent is inspired upon how actual rosemary is used for aromatherapy.**

**-For conveying the scenery of the forest, I used real-life examples on how everything should exactly look. The 'green tunnel' made up of branches and leaves that Rosemary and the twins went through is based upon a landmark known as "The Tunnel of Love", which in reality is a railway tunnel in the Ukraine that extends for about 3 to 5 miles. The forest home that the faeries live in is inspired by the Ogden Forest in Utah, specifically during autumn when the leaves on the trees turn into vibrant and bright colors. For the village itself, I wanted to give it a sort-of Smurf-like inspiration to it (hence the not-so subtle reference Mabel dropped in the story), with wood-crafted and hand-made contraptions. Their houses themselves are also inspired by those treehouse-like buildings that Chewbacca's family lived in from the wildly-infamous Star Wars Holiday Special. (I suggest Googling these landmarks so you'd get a feel on what they look like irl).**

**Apologies for making you all read these boring tidbits, I just wanted to make things a bit clearer… :(**

**So, with all that out of the way, I'm hoping to stretch this story out for three or maybe four more chapters, so I'll try and keep working on this story (along with a couple of others currently on the backburner) going along in spite of my new job. But still, I hope you all are enjoying the story nonetheless and I'll try and get Chapter Three up in a couple of weeks, so I apologize again for any upcoming delays.**

**Thanks again for reading and expect more faeries to be introduced in the next chapter! :)**

**~Thunderbyrd**


	3. Chapter 3: Of Faeries And Men

**Nothing too much to say before this chapter, aside that we now have a new faerie character that may not be so keen on having the Pines twins in his village. Will this newcomer accept Dipper and Mabel into his home, or will this trip end sooner than expected? Let's find out, my dudes and dudettes!**

**Gravity Falls is owned by Alex Hirsch and Disney. (I do not own any of its characters nor its properties. This is purely a non-profit fanfic made for fun).**

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**THE FAERIES OF THE FALLS**

**CHAPTER THREE: OF FAERIES AND MEN**

"...Oh, sweet mother of Mother Nature…" Rosemary lamented in an upset whisper. As expected, while the day earlier had been full of promise and fun, was now certainly going to take a turn for the worst…

...as evident by the stern, disapproved glare the broad-bodied, crossbow-wielding faerie that was slowly approaching the crowd of faeries before him.

All the faeries crowding around were all hushed, their faces twinging with slight fear. Having known this particular faerie and what kind of personality he has, they knew things weren't going be as fun and fancy free as they'd all thought it would be at this moment. And they all knew that he'd have a few choice words to say towards the village's new human guests indeed.

The masculine faerie didn't say a word. His hard stare was aimed directly at the pair of towering twin siblings standing around in the midst of the faerie village; his home. The home he sworn to protect and keep hidden from any violent or inconsiderate humans for many years, and of course, two of them have managed to actually find this well-secluded village regardless of how far off the grid it was.

...and he had a knowing feeling in his gut that Rosemary must've had a hand in this somehow…

The tension in the air was thick enough to cut it with a knife. Rosemary could clearly see how anxious everyone was feeling right now with this manly faerie, especially with her new human friends, Dipper and Mabel. However, Rosemary was doing her best to be brave for her friends and family. She knew this particular faerie for so long, and even with his suspicion-laced eyes fixated on the humans, she still hoped to knock some sense into him regardless.

She then fluttered up towards the approaching faerie, trying not to let his disdainful glare throw her off-guard as she mustered up an innocent smile.

"O-Oh, Oak, I didn't think you would've arrived back from patrol so soon!" Rosemary greeted shakily, an embarrassed blush crossing across her nervous grin. The recently-named Oak huffed crossly.

"Figured I arrived back early this time…" he rumbled, not bothering to look towards Rosemary as his sights were still locked on towards the Pines twins. "May I ask what are a pair of _humans_ are doing in _our_ village?" he bluntly replied to Rosemary, cutting straight to the point.

The sudden bout of mild hostility sent shivers up Dipper and Mabel's spines. The rest of the faeries around them began to look worried, unsure of would occur with the sudden appearance of their clan's strongest member. Sensing the fear of both the twins and her fellow faeries however, Rosemary simply stood her ground and kept smiling (albeit forcefully) to not be deterred by the rough faerie's brash demeanor.

"They are our _guests_, actually." she answered to him, trying to keep her tone leveled, "Their names are Dipper and Mabel Pines. They've been hoping to visit our quaint village today to do some research."

Oak groaned tiredly and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Oh, Lord, Rosemary...your hospitality is going to get us killed one of these days…" he grumbled to himself. Dipper and Mabel glanced back at each other and quivered. Rosemary felt her body tense up a bit and her tolerant smile begin to wane, but she still bravely kept her stance.

"Oak, dearie, I know this all may be unconventional, but please, trust me when I say that this could possibly pave the way for us faeries to gain a stronger bond with the humans!" explained Rosemary. To her dismay however, Oak seemed more unconvinced than accepting with her idea.

"'Unconventional'? You seriously thought that bringing these gargantuan humans to a camp full of tiny faeries was going to be a good idea, Rosemary?" he asked in a slightly more irked tone, "Besides, how could we bond better with a pair of 4-foot tall...things!? They could step on something without even knowing it!" Rosemary narrowed her eyes at Oak's rash accusations.

"B-But, I assure you that they mean no harm!" she insisted simply. However, Oak still wasn't swayed.

"Rosemary, you, me, and the rest of the village know about what humans get into, with the war and the pollution and all that!" Oak explained disapprovingly. Dipper and Mabel found themselves sweating profusely and tugged at their shirt collars upon _that _last statement. Regardless, Rosemary still came to their defense.

"But these humans are different than _those_ kinds of humans, Oak! Honest!" replied Rosemary sincerely, her voice sounding more desperate by the second. Oak waved off her firmness.

"Pssh, at the end of the day, _all_ humans are basically the same…" grunted Oak, crossing his arms, "At least us faeries have something of a moral compass…"

He then looked over the disheartened Rosemary's shoulder to see the humans in question giving him rather nervous and on-edge expressions. One stern and mistrustful leer was enough to cause the twins to jump and look away, both trying their best to not seem suspicious. Just then, Wattle stepped in to stick up for the humans as well.

"Oak, I'm very certain these humans really don't mean any trouble. I mean, it's not like humans can breathe fire or grow claws or anything like that!" reassured the gold-colored faerie confidently. Although, having heard what he just said, it wasn't long until Wattle looked back up to the towering twins, a small trace of fear crossing his face.

"...You mates _don't_ do any of that stuff...do you?" he queried timidly. Luckily, a pair of subtle nods from the two helped put Wattle at ease.

"Hmph, be that as it may, Wattle…" Oak stated importantly, "I personally just don't see any reason as to why humans and faeries should be under the same roof…" Sage sighed softly and joined the group as well.

"Oak, like, there's no need to be a square about this…" she pacified in her most calmest tone, "These humans _are_ legit harmless, I've read their auras, trust me…even with their personalities tending to ebb and flow with each other, there's still a sense of genuine love between these two humans...and that they mean no ill will to us all..."

Oak rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Pssh, you and your auras…" he grumbled to himself. Sage was certainly the most spiritual of the faerie clan, so this wasn't the first time Oak was subjected to her colorful descriptions of how life worked through her eyes. "Look, all I'm saying is that us faeries hadn't had the best track record when it comes to encountering other humans!" he finished off with a groan.

Wattle scoffed indignantly. "Pssh, yeah, sure, tell me _one_ time, mate!" he challenged. Oak raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

"Wattle, I can tell you literally almost _hundreds_ of times about when a faerie and a human interacted with each other, and that nine times out of ten, it ended badly for us faeries…" Oak reminded. But Wattle and the others stayed indignant. Sure, Oak was bringing up a very good point regarding the subject, but _they_ knew right from wrong much more better than Oak can, and _they_ knew that the twins were 100% harmless.

"Oak, please, I assure you everything will be fine!" Rosemary guaranteed as she went up to the faerie patriarch and placed a warm hand on his broad shoulder, "You trust me, don't you?"

Oak's harsh glare began to soften a bit at Rosemary's touch, but his face was still wrought with doubt upon having humans visiting his docile. "I trust _you_, Rosemary...it's just the humans I'm not sure about. I'm only enforcing this because I want our home to safe from harm...as well as our friends and family...that's why I'm teaching the other faeries archery as a means to protect ourselves from disaster..."

Rosemary's eyes were glazed with sadness from hearing Oak's remark. In fairness, she knew Oak was acting this in hopes to keep their friends and home safe from trouble, but even she knew that, sure, while there were certainly some humans out there were bad apples to say the least, there still exists genuinely kind, peaceful, and civilized human beings out there. Rosemary was certain Oak must know that all human aren't bad after all, she just had to give him a little step in the right direction.

But before she could say anything, Oak, who was now looking more sorrowful than stern, spoke up.

"Rosemary, I appreciate that you and the other faeries here care deeply about other creatures, and that I know you all are curious about what lies beyond the village, but I can't risk losing anymore friends to any humans...we've already lost our ancestors and I can't lose you or any other faerie here…" Then, he brought up something so suddenly that literally every faerie around him were immediately floored upon hearing his sad statement.

"...and I trust you know what happened to Lavender, right?" he asked with a low, hardly-audible tone.

Rosemary suddenly felt her protective stance was sidelined for subdued silence. The rest of the faeries in the group even managed to grow respectfully silent upon the mere mention of that particular faerie's name. Oak groaned softly, his stern nature becoming more solemn.

"It took us a while before we managed to find her," he sighed, "all squished against the window of some run-down tourist shack of a home in Gravity Falls, thanks to some human using one of those...those things they swat away flies with…"

"A flyswatter?" corrected Sage offhandedly. Oak nodded in return.

"Yes, that thing...but even so, when we found her...she was critically injured, with broken bones, broken wings, and she lost a lot of faerie dust that day…" Then, in a soft, regretful voice, he mentioned one last grieving statement regarding this upsetting memoir.

"Even our own magic couldn't save her that day…"

The faerie crowd all bowed their heads in silence, in memory of the terrible fate that befell their faerie friend that day. Even Rosemary, Wattle, and Sage all looked quite hushed and saddened by this news. Lavender, a fellow member of the faerie clan with a sparkling, puce-colored shine and complexion, was a good friend to them all, always donning a cheerful smile towards everyone. However, last summer, she strayed too far from the village and found her way to the town of Gravity Falls and suddenly wound up coming across a human.

A single smack of a flyswatter was enough to injure her greatly before a faerie scouting party discovered her and took her back home. But unfortunately, try as they might, Oak and the others weren't able to revive Lavender in time, thus costing her life at the hands of a human. And of course, Lavender wasn't the only faerie to have been slain by a human, whether it was an accident or not, as many of the faeries' ancestors have mostly met their fates towards humans back as far as when they first migrated to the States.

Lavender's fate was one of the latest occurrences of a faerie being offed by a human, and with that done, Oak put a ban on having the other faeries stray too far from the village, enough so that they wouldn't even leave the forest. _period_. And, as well as to never enter the town ever again to preserve the lives of the faeries then and there.

Despite all this, the faeries, while truly missing Lavender and their ancestors very much, still felt that Oak was being too harsh about judging the entire human race as nothing but violent and ignorant jerks. Even so, Oak wasn't particularly a brute himself. Sure, he took up archery as a means to protect his home and friends, but even with his grudge against humans, he wouldn't dare attack a human needlessly unless perchance if said human was fighting back.

Although, his practically-permanent stern nature only gave off an uneasy aura towards the faeries and humans, so in return, they all simply opted to keep their distance away from Oak for most of the time, as not to provoke him. As the group quietly mourned the loss of their friend, a thought occurred to Mabel, so much so that she couldn't help but to address something to Dipper.

"Dipper?" she asked quietly to her brother, who had his cap off in respect for the faeries before him.

"Yeah?"

"...Do...Do you think he's talking about the Mystery Shack?" she whispered out, almost fearfully. Dipper frowned softly. Somehow the location of what Oak was describing _does_ sound a tad familiar.

"Possibly…" he pondered softly, "I think I do recall seeing a faerie on our windowsill last summer…" Then, his voice went low enough not to have the faeries hear him.

"...And I think that faerie was the one this Oak guy is talking about…"

Mabel gasped softly. "The one Soos squished?" she asked in an equally-gentle voice, "B-But...I'm sure that was an accident, surely!" Dipper's frown deepened and he sighed morosely.

"I don't think Oak would care if that was accidental or not…" he confided realistically. The twins simply stood there in guilty silence as they watched Rosemary now trying to knock any semblance of sense into Oak's head after everyone slowly eased away from their sad stupor.

"Oak, I know Lavender's death was unexpected, and trust me, we all miss her dearly...but still, you can't simply rule out that _all_ humans are cruel and violent!" she stated, her tone sounding more sadder by every word she said. And unfortunately, Oak wasn't letting up anytime soon.

"I'm sorry, Rosemary…" he sighed gravely, shaking his head, "I know you and the others love to see the good in everyone's heart, but I've lost too many good friends and family to let humans simply idle about in my village. I mean, Bluebell can tell you about the experience she had when she first met a human last year. Here, maybe she can explain it better than I can..."

Rosemary winced and frowned deeply, knowing how this particular faerie can get when she's singled out from a crowd. "Oak, dear, no...don't bring Bluebell into this! You know she doesn't like it when we bring up that-"

But it was too late as Oak began calling out for the faerie, hoping to put the pieces together to this whole dilemma, much to Rosemary's fright and annoyance. "Bluebell!? Could you come up here please!?"

Just then, a certain faerie amongst the bunch fluttered past the hushed crowd of faeries and up towards Oak and Rosemary. She was a female faerie with wavy, blonde-colored hair and a blue dress. She also had a very frightened and timid expression and demeanor to boot, indicating that she really didn't like to be center of attention, especially when someone like Oak is speaking to her.

Oak narrowed his eyes and as calmly as he could be, he flew up to Bluebell and spoke to her only a father would sound like when having a serious talk with his child.

"Bluebell, was it true you have wandered outside of the camp to explore the forest last summer?" he questioned carefully. The faerie looked down at feet and nodded feebly, too visibly upset to speak. Rosemary looked on confusedly.

"Oak, what are you doing!?" she loudly whispered at him, unsure of where he was going with this, but Oak ignored her for now.

"And was it true," he continued on, "that you have encountered a human along your travels and that he swatted you once you got too close?"

The faerie gulped again. "Y-Yeah…" Rosemary rolled her eyes and flew up to the two, wanting to put an end to this before things got bad.

"Oak, there really is no reason for an interrogation. Bluebell here didn't know that that human would something like that to her. And also, I'm sure that the human didn't mean to do such a thing!" Rosemary replied, placing a comforting hand on the blonde faerie's back.

"I'm not interrogating." defended Oak, "I was simply asking her was all…" Poor Bluebell was now looking more apologetic than anything as she too put her own two cents into this conversation.

"I-It was my fault though…" Bluebell insisted shamefully, "I was looking at some pretty-looking flowers and when I saw that human pass by, I really wanted to show those flowers to him as well. I tried getting his attention anyway I could, but it was no use. I shouted at him, flew all around him, and I even tried...well…"

Rosemary tilted her head curiously. "You tried what, Bluebell?" she asked gently. Bluebell shuddered unhappily, a few tears beginning to prick her eyes.

"I...I even tried biting him…" Bluebell whispered in a low and regretful voice, the weight of her past actions making her feel so disgraced. The dumbfounded looks on Oak and Rosemary certainly didn't make her feel better. Even the rest of the faeries around them looked surprised by such an action.

"You _bit_ a human!?" gasped Rosemary incredulously, reeling back in shock. Bluebell grew even more skittish, clearly not liking being the center of attention like this. And being interrogated by Oak of all faeries certainly wasn't putting her mind at ease.

"I didn't mean to!" cried Bluebell, "I just wanted to grab his attention...but it didn't work and instead he...he…"

"He wound up flicking you aside like a fly…" finished Oak, having got the explanation he desired. "Bluebell, I'm sorry, but that was very dangerous of you to wander off that far like that! That sorry excuse of a human could've seriously hurt you, you know. You were just lucky we managed to find you and patch you up in time..."

Even if there was nary a trace of malice or disgust in his voice, Oak's stern reprimanding was still enough to bring poor Bluebell's emotions into their breaking point. Her eyes began to water, her breathing became hitched and unsteady, and her face was wrinkled with shame after being reminded of such a gruesome event.

"I was only just curious was all!" wailed out Bluebell, now beginning to cry softly in her hands. Rosemary, despite still in shock that a _faerie_ wound actually do something as off-putting as biting a human, couldn't help but to feel sorry for the neurotic-minded faerie and, without questioning anything, she flew up to Bluebell and gave her a comforting hug, letting her sob unhappily on her shoulder.

She patted and rubbed her back gently, shushing gently into her ear. "Shh, shh, it's okay, Bluebell...everything will be okay...it's all in the past now…" As Bluebell wept softly within Rosemary's arms, the red-haired faerie in question sharply gave Oak a rather irritated expression.

"_Do you now see what interrogating others this badly can do?_" she hissed lowly towards the buff faerie, as not so the distraught Bluebell couldn't hear her. Oak felt his stony expression actually soften up once more, not really expecting Bluebell to act this hysterical. But before he could say anything else, Mabel then piped up from behind.

"Uh...excuse me?"

Rosemary, Bluebell, Oak, and the other faeries brought their attention to the sweater-wearing girl. Bluebell was doing her very best to calm down in Rosemary's arms, while Oak simply gave the human girl an unamused look. "Yes, may we help you?" he grunted towards Mabel.

Mabel gulped, trying not to let Oak's glare get to her. "I-I just wanted to a-ask that blonde faerie a question...wh-what was her name again?"

Bluebell wiped away her tears, finally calm enough to speak coherently again. "M-My name is Bluebell...what did you want to ask?"

Mabel gulped softly and knelt down closer to Bluebell, trying to ignore Oak's protective stance. "Did you happen to see what this human looked like?" she asked curiously. Bluebell's face wrinkled, she pondered over her occurrence with some thought.

"W-well, he looked old and tall...he wore a black suit, a fez, and some glasses...and looked all grumpy and gruff and he smelled of prunes and cheap cologne…" explained Bluebell, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

Both of the twins felt their skin turned ghostly white and their pupils shrink as realization hit them like an oncoming big rig. Only one person in Gravity Falls could fit that description, no doubt. And upon hearing that, they weren't sure how to respond to that without being possibly labelled as "faerie-killing assailants", especially with a human-disliking creature like Oak around them.

Mabel in particular, who was _actually_ there when that experience had happened, seemed more afraid and shell-shocked than Dipper was. She gulped the growing lump in her throat and coughed nervously, getting back up on her feet.

"Uh...w-was there a-anybody else there t-that you saw?" stammered Mabel, hoping that she wouldn't be tipped off as someone who witnessed a faerie injury and did nothing about it. Gratefully for her, Bluebell shook her head silently.

"I don't think so...I was too busy preoccupied with the elderly human to see any others…" answered Bluebell truthfully. Mabel exhaled softly in relief, glad to have dodged a major bullet there. Dipper patted her backside in sympathy. Oak then cleared his throat and addressed himself back to Rosemary.

"Anyways, Rosemary, what makes you think _these _two humans would be any different to any other humans? I mean, these two are children. Last I checked, human children are overly-curious and can be quite clumsy and needy…" declared Oak loftily. Rosemary shook her head.

"Not these two…" insisted Rosemary proudly, "I can easily sense that Dipper and Mabel here both do mean well and that they absolutely don't mean to cause any trouble. They are both strong of heart…"

Oak raised an eyebrow, somewhat unconvinced of Rosemary's sincere words. "'Strong of heart', eh?" he mused. He looked over to the twins and gave them a precise and long stare, as if to scan them for anything he needs to watch out for.

Both twins felt on-edge once again, not liking how this brash faerie was looking at them. They still kept quiet and didn't bother to move a single muscle, on account of this faerie was planning to attack them in any way. In this case, Oak wasn't thinking of aimlessly attacking anyone at all (he was properly raised to _not_ act like such a barbarian), but still, he was still hoping to keep a close eye out on these humans should do something bad. Rosemary was also wary about what Oak was doing, knowing the twins felt great discomfort over having him scan them like simple slabs of meat.

She knew that Dipper especially must be quite terrified by Oak's suspicious actions, and indeed she was right. Poor Dipper felt the need to tremble uncontrollably on the spot from being looked up by this tiny, buff archer faerie for so long. His brow began to sweat and his skinny legs felt like they were about to buckle under the pressure any second now.

Oak noticed the boy's increasing nervousness and actually managed to pull off something of a wry smirk. "Well, I suppose they'd have to be strong of _heart_. This boy's too skinny to be strong in weight…" he quipped, letting out a small chuckle afterwards.

Dipper's face turned bright red as he shamefully looked down at his feet. Although this certainly wasn't the first time his stature was made fun of by anyone, having a strong and bold faerie like Oak hurl a joke like that seemed to strike at his heart the hardest. Mabel frowned in sympathy and rubbed Dipper's back to try and ease his troubled nerves. The rest of the faeries noticed Dipper's abashed expression and they all couldn't help but to feel sorry for the saddened boy.

Rosemary especially looked quite heartbroken over seeing Dipper look so downcast that she was almost ready to go up to him and give him a hug out of reassurance. However, she still had to show Oak about the sincerity of the twins' visit. But before she or anyone else could do anything, Oak spoke up once more.

"Well, even if I agreed to let them stay, you said they were doing some sort of research…?" he asked stoically. Rosemary nodded.

"Yes, they're hoping to learn about our culture to document it in their Journal, was all. Nothing more…" she declared truthfully. Oak didn't seem fully persuaded, unfortunately.

"Hmph, possibly so that they can blab to everyone about the exact location to our home?" he assumed dourly. Rosemary narrowed her eyes at Oak. Her persistence was strong, but Oak was really trying her patience with this whole "humans are brutes" ordeal.

"_No_, this is only between them and their family, and they both promised me that they wouldn't dare give away our location." she insisted. She turned her head over to the twins. "Isn't that right, dearies?" she asked them. Dipper and Mabel, despite still a bit nervous, gave Rosemary a pair of genuine smiles and thumbs-ups.

"Yes, ma'am." both twins chimed out in unison. Rosemary smiled and turned back to Oak, who was still unswayed by all of this. Rosemary's smile dissolved into a sad frown. Sighing softly, she then reached out and placed her right hand on Oak's shoulder.

"Oak, please, just trust me on this...I'm going to be with these two all day today, so I promise I'll keep an eye on them throughout their visit. They're only visiting for the day, so I ensure you that nothing bad will happen…"

Oak carefully listened to Rosemary's unwavering promise with open ears. True, he trusted these humans as far as he could throw them, but he also trusted Rosemary as well, even if what she was saying sounded a bit sketchy to him. They've both been close friends for many years and even if they both never agreed on most subjects, they still cared for each other regardless, despite Oak's bold and stoic personality and Rosemary's overly-accepting demeanor clashing with each other.

At long last, after a few seconds of quiet contemplation, Oak finally gave his final consensus to Rosemary about her plan. He sighed heavily and rubbed his aching temples before he did something no one in the faerie village would expect him to do with Rosemary.

He actually agreed with her.

"Very well…"

Rosemary couldn't have felt her eyes grow any wider even if she tried. Did Oak - stoic, brash Oak with a grudge against humankind - _actually_ agree to let her show these humans around their home? To be fair, she knew it was something of a long shot to persuade him to do as such, but she was still surprised he agreed to let this happen at all! The rest of the faeries in the crowd looked just as flabbergasted as well, and even the twins were stunned to hear Oak agree to all this!

Rosemary actually wound up slapping herself in the face to break her away from her amazed stupor to finally find her voice again. "E-Excuse m-me?" she stammered out, wide eyed and mouth agape. Oak groaned and looked her in the eye.

"I said, 'very well'. I'll let you show these humans around for the day, so long as they don't touch anything smaller than they are, and that they watch where they're going. I'd rather not have to deal with a smashed house or a flattened faerie this afternoon…"

Rosemary's hazel-hued eyes sparkled with hope. She was still shocked to have Oak _actually_ let her show the Pines twins around, but her shock was more on terms of delightful in regards. Then, her joyful, face-spreading grin returned with absolute full force and the shiny aura covering her body seemed to shine even brighter than the sun as she squealed excitedly before she flew up to Oak and gave him the tightest, most grateful embrace she has ever given to anyone.

"Oh, thank you, Oak! Thank-you-thank-you-_thank-you!_" she gasped, cheering happily like a schoolgirl. Oak groaned from within her compacted hug, but weathered through it as Rosemary finally her grip on him. "Oh, you won't regret it, dearie! I ensure you that these humans are rightfully different than the ones you keep mentioning, I promise!"

Oak exhaled tiredly and felt his aching biceps as Rosemary fully released him from her hug. "Ugh, sure…" he groaned before his usual stern expression returned, "But just know this Rosemary, watching these humans are your responsibility. I'm trusting you to keep a very close eye on them, to make sure they don't cause havoc…" he warned in a serious tone.

Rosemary smiled in assurance. "Of course, Oak." she promised, "They'll be in good hands. You really don't have anything to worry about…" Oak scoffed to himself.

"I _pray_ that I won't…" he groaned softly. Then, he slowly flew up towards Dipper and Mabel, a hard look etched on his chiseled face. The twins gulped and shuddered with fear upon having this faerie suddenly approach them, but they stayed silent regardless (probably cause they were too scared to even _bother_ to say anything either way).

Oak hovered up to the twins until he was looking at them both squarely in the eyes with his own. The headstrong faerie certainly could sense fear from within the humans, and even if he wasn't legit trying to plan or do anything harmful, he still wanted to make one little thing clear to them just in case. Oak took in a deep breath and began speaking quite seriously towards the twins.

"Now, listen…" he started, keeping his voice perfectly leveled, "just because you two are guests here doesn't mean you both should go around all willy-nilly in a village made for smaller creatures. I expect the both of you to stay with Rosemary at all times and _please_, try not to cause property damage or any harm to my kin, whether it's by accident or not. Am I being clear with you both?"

Oak's steadfast and serious request certainly struck a chord in the twins' minds as he was met with them both giving him an affirmative, though frightened head nod. The archer faerie's frown softened and he nodded back.

"Very well then…" he replied, "but just know I'll be keeping an eye on you two during your visit." The twins gulped and shivered with fright.

"O-Of course, sir!" Dipper answered back. Mabel nodded alongside him.

"A-Absolutely!" agreed Mabel. Oak, deciding that the humans have had enough of feeling interrogated, simply felt it best to give the humans a bit of breathing room and flew back down on the ground, passing by Rosemary, Wattle, Sage, Bluebell, and the rest of the faerie clan before he starting addressing towards them again.

"Well, no need to idle around!" he ordered, "We all still have chores to finish!" And with that said, the crowd of faeries began to disperse and fly away around the village to tend with their chores once again, as if nothing has happened. With the crowd now preoccupied with their own accords, Oak turned his head back to Rosemary.

"If you need me, Rosemary, I'll be at archery training nearby the watermill. Please ensure that our...human guests stay out of trouble…" he appointed gruffly. Rosemary nodded and smiled.

"Absolutely!" she replied, "You really don't have anything to fret over…" Oak gave her a tilted frown, trying not to look uncertain over Rosemary's promise.

"Mm-hmm…" he simply mused. And with that, he hiked up the quiver slung over his shoulder and flew off towards the village's watermill to do some training. Once he was gone, Rosemary's big smile slowly deterred into an exhausted frown, grateful for having Oak agree to her plan, though tired for trying to sway him into doing so in the process.

Wattle and Sage were the only ones to stay behind as the faerie crowd had all departed away to do their chores. Sage groaned softly. "Yeesh, what did I tell you? A real square that guy is…" she commented. Wattle nodded silently in agreement.

Dipper and Mabel could only stand there in stunned silence, trying to piece together what had just happened before Mabel finally decided to address the matter once and for all.

"Wh-What was all that about?" gasped Mabel,. Rosemary frowned deeply and sighed sadly, looking back up to the twins.

"_That_ was Oak, I'm afraid…" she explained to the humans, "He's always a rough and stern sort, always claiming to be something of a de facto leader for our clan…"

"Yeah, he normally acts this way most of the time, seeing as his grandfather was, like, one of the first faeries to travel from Europe to America to begin with. Hence why he sees himself as a leader..." added Sage mournfully. Wattle nodded alongside her in agreement.

"You blokes shouldn't take it personally…" he soothed, "He is a lil' rough around the edges, but it _does_ come from a good heart, fair dinkum…his aura's probably just clouded up is all..."

Poor Dipper and Mabel felt sorry for the other faeries. They hadn't realized they'd have to deal with such a rude character to begin with. Up until now, these faeries looked like they hadn't a single bad bone in their body, but now after seeing someone like Oak in their midst, the twins knew they had to be careful around the faeries, and _especially_ around Oak.

Something however crossed Dipper's mind as he suddenly remembered the choice of weapon Oak was carrying with him. He looked down at Rosemary with an incredulous look.

"Rosemary, I th-thought you said you faeries w-were strictly non-violent!" he asked frightfully. Rosemary winced apologetically.

"We are!" she declared truthfully, "But Oak insisted on using archery as a means to protect our village, perchance an intruder or a monster may show up to injure any of us…"

"That's why he goes on patrols all the time to ensure the safety of our home from trouble…" explained Wattle.

"B-But, we wouldn't harm any of you guys!" persisted Mabel. Rosemary sighed morosely and flew up to grab each one of the twins' hands in her own.

"I know you both wouldn't do such a thing, and neither do my friends." she replied, her eyes glistening with sincerity, "But even so, Oak still harbors a bit of a grudge towards the humans, regardless of their age, race, or gender…"

Mabel gingerly brought her other hand to rub Rosemary's own tiny hand on her own. "Do any of you all know the reason why Oak doesn't like humans?" she asked gently.

She then realized she must've asked a loaded question however, after seeing Rosemary's already-saddened expression twist into one of even greater grief and sorrow. The little faerie's head hung down low, her eyes slowly beginning to water. Wattle and Sage noticed their close friend's sadness and flew up towards her, with Wattle giving her a gentle hug (which Rosemary willingly and gratefully accepted and returned) and Sage patting her back comfortingly.

Knowing Rosemary was too upset to answer back, Wattle luckily filled in for her. "It's really something we all try not to dwell on…" sighed Wattle, his voice low enough to hide his already-soft-sounding accent, all while still holding her in his embrace.

Sage nodded in agreement. "Let's just say that it involves an event of when the faeries traveled to Gravity Falls many years ago…"

Even without the context of what Sage meant by that, somehow both Dipper and Mabel knew that it must be something personal to the faeries. Given Oak's stern nature towards the humans, it was clearly obvious that the faeries certainly had plenty of not-so pleasant encounters with other humans in the past, and as of now, the twins really didn't want to get on the faeries' bad sides, _especially_ with Oak hanging around.

Before the twins could dish out another round of apologies, a tiny, timid-sounding voice piped up from behind the group.

"Umm...e-excuse me?"

Dipper, Mabel, and the trio of faeries turned around to see Bluebell shyly join back into the group again. She flew a few inches closer towards the faeries, keeping her distance away

Rosemary's warm smile slowly returned once again upon seeing this particular faerie join the group. "Yes, Bluebell? Is everything alright?" she asked kindly. Bluebell twiddled her fingers and scratched the back of her leg with her foot.

She gave the group a doe-eyed expression and spoke up in the softest voice ever heard by anyone. "Um, I-I was wondering if I could ask a question t-to the humans...i-if that's okay with them?" she asked shyly. Rosemary looked surprised for a moment before giving Bluebell a soft smile.

"Why...sure!" she agreed kindly, right before she looked over her shoulder and towards the twins. "That is, if they would like to?"

In spite of the lingering nervousness still stuck in Dipper's mind, he really didn't want to come out as rude to the others, so then, he graciously accepted Rosemary's innocent suggestion. "S-Sure, that's fine with us! R-Right, Mabes?"

Mabel, who was now faring up a little bit better than Dipper was after the whole encounter with Oak, simply gave the faeries a bright, brace-filled grin. "Absolutely!" she chirped giddily.

She then unceremoniously plopped belly-first on the ground and scooched up towards the demure, yet curious Bluebell, giving her their full attention. "What would ya like to talk about?" she asked, supporting her head with her hands.

Bluebell, however, was so surprised with Mabel's exuberance that she found herself hemming and hawing nervously right there on the spot, now too frightened to ask about whatever she wanted to ask about. Dipper noticed the faerie's behavior and leaned in closer to Rosemary, Sage, and Wattle.

"Uh, i-is she okay? Did we startle her too much?" he asked worriedly. The faerie trio simply smiled kindly at Dipper.

"Oh, Bluebell tends to be a bit shy, especially after she encountered that human a year ago. But she's still very kind and always curious about new things..." replied Rosemary with a wave of her hand.

"Once you both, like, get to know her, she's an absolute sweetheart, for real!" Sage added, with Wattle nodding in agreement.

Dipper looked back at Bluebell, whom was still looking quite timid and quiet, in spite of Mabel's friendly (if not, excitable) demeanor. A pitied expression crossed the boy's face. Being timid and nerve-wracked himself, he sympathized with this demure-looking faerie greatly and he hoped to try and make her feel like that she could talk to him and Mabel without fear.

The Pines boy then carefully knelt down on the ground right next to his sister and gave Bluebell a small, but nevertheless friendly and comforting smile.

"It's okay there, Bluebell…" Dipper soothed softly down at the blonde faerie, "I'm sorry about Mabel. She can get a bit too excited when meeting new friends, but I assure you that we're both not going to hurt you or your friends…"

Bluebell gulped softly, her eyes glimmered with hope as she kept her awestruck gaze up at the two humans sweetly looking down upon her. "...Y-You promise?" asked Bluebell in a soft tone. Dipper smiled warmly and raised up the pinkie finger on his right hand.

"Absolutely, I pinkie promi-" Dipper then paused for a moment, suddenly realizing that maybe a pinkie promise wouldn't work as well between a regular-sized human child and a tiny faerie that was as tall as his own finger. Instead, he opted to simply cross his heart and to give Bluebell a trusting grin.

"I mean...you have my word, scout's honor…" Dipper corrected himself. Thankfully, it was sufficient enough for Bluebell to calm herself down enough to feel more comfortable around the twins. She even managed to muster up something of a tiny, shy smile in return!

"Well...okay, um…" Bluebell began softly, "Uh, I-I just wanted to ask...what kind of hobbies do you two usually like to do?" The twins, not put off by her question, certainly didn't have to think long to answer back, especially for Mabel as she merrily began listing off what she liked to do.

"Whelp, let's see...I like having slumber parties, chatting with my friends, talkin' about cute boys, playing with my pet pig Waddles, singing, dancing, singing while dancing...y'know, fun stuff!" she chirped, finishing off her list with a giggle. Bluebell tittered gently to herself.

She then turned towards Dipper, expecting to give out his answer in return. Dipper coughed awkwardly and began to feel a bit timid. "Well, uh...I'm usually into book-learning and discovering new mysterious things a-and stuff, I dunno, it's really boring stuff...you wouldn't be interested in that sort of thing…"

Dipper blushed with embarrassment. He knew he wasn't as outgoing as Mabel was, and that his love for mystery wasn't widely shared between him and some of his peers (especially back in his hometown of Piedmont), but to his surprise, Bluebell wasn't seeming to be put off by Dipper's answer by any means actually.

"'Discovering new things'? Like what?" she asked, her curiosity genuinely peaked. Dipper stammered for a second before answering.

"Well...usually about all the supernatural creatures that are seen or hidden all around Gravity Falls, you know, like gnomes and shapeshifters and monsters...that kind of thing…" he explained shyly. Bluebell's eyes widened in both surprise and intrigue.

"R-Really?" she gasped lightly. Mabel nodded in agreement.

"Yep! We spent a whole summer last year discovering so many creatures and solving a lot of mysteries! It was absolute fun...though kinda dangerous, but still fun!" exclaimed Mabel. Rosemary, Wattle, and Sage then joined up with the trio after staying in the sidelines for a while.

"That was mainly the reason these two have shown up today. They were hoping to learn more about us so they could record it in their book…" smiled Rosemary. Bluebell grinned with interest.

"Oh, that sounds nice!" commented the blue-dressed faerie. Then, Bluebell fluttered up to Dipper and gently took his hand, patting it reassuringly and giving him a soft smile. "And by the way, I don't think what you enjoy doing sounds boring, Dipper. I think it sounds fun! You really shouldn't be ashamed for liking anything you enjoy to do…"

Dipper's nervous frown slowly turned into an appreciative smile, a very faint blush spreading across his cheeks. "Thank you, Bluebell…" Dipper smiled gratefully.

Then, as if to cap off how sincere she was with her earlier statement, Bluebell straight flew up to Dipper's face and without warning, she went up to his right cheek and gave it a friendly hug. Dipper was completely unprepared to having a small faerie hugging up against his face, but given the circumstance, he couldn't help but to smile and chuckle warmly. He then "returned" the embrace and gingerly bringing his index finger to caress Bluebell's backside gentle enough not to accidentally squish her by mistake. Now, it was time for Bluebell to join Dipper in on the laughter, along with Mabel, Rosemary, Wattle, and Sage as well.

The six friends all giggled happily together until Dipper and Bluebell finally released their impromptu hug. However, Bluebell still had one more question to ask.

"Um, could I ask o-one more question, though?" she asked in a more shyer tone. Mabel lifted herself off the ground and gave her another big grin.

"Absolutely!" she chirped, "What's up?"

Bluebell coughed awkwardly in her hand. "Ahem, well, uh...if I may ask...do you two...uh…"

The twins looked at each other and raised their eyebrows before they turned back to the timid faerie. "Do we what?" Dipper asked curiously. Bluebell soon summoned all her strength to finally ask her next question.

"D-Do humans...like flowers?" she finally asked in her softest voice yet. The twins blinked once in mild disbelief before Mabel broke out into yet another big smile.

"Of course humans like flowers!" she exclaimed, "Who wouldn't like 'em?" Mabel's answer seemed to reassure Bluebell to the point where her shyness made way for excitement.

"W-Would you both like to see some flowers?" she asked hopefully, beaming giddily, "I found this beautiful patch of posies close by!" Rosemary smiled warmly upon seeing Bluebell starting to open up more around the humans, but knowing that the humans couldn't really stay out for too, too long, she hoped to give the twins a little tour before anything else could happen.

"We may have to do that a bit later, Bluebell…" Rosemary reminded gently, coming up to Bluebell with an apologetic smile, "I was hoping to show Mabel and Dipper around our home to see how we live and work before it gets too dark out..."

Bluebell's joy deflated a bit at the sound of that proposal, though in fairness, she did understand what Rosemary was meaning by and tried not to sound too upset about it. "Oh...okay, Rosemary…" Bluebell replied, her eyes downcast and her smile beginning to falter.

Wattle noticed his friend's apparent sadness and flew up to her and wrapped a friendly arm around her slumped shoulders. "No worries, sheila!" he chirped assuringly, "If ya'd like, you can help me whip up a nice lunch for our new friends in the meantime."

Bluebell did manage to crack a small smile at that offer and nodded her head "yes" back at Wattle. But before the two faeries could leave, Dipper timidly called for Bluebell's attention. "Uh, excuse me? Miss Bluebell?" he beckoned gently.

Bluebell turned around and curiously cocked her head. "Y-Yes?" she asked back. Dipper and Mabel gulped softly. Another wave of guilt came crashing over them after hearing this faerie's backstory of being unexpectedly squashed by their Grunkle of all people, and they were really worried that their new friends may take it very personally _should_ they find out what familial ties this certain human carries.

Dipper was the first to speak after a few seconds of awkward, nervous silence. "We both...uh...are really sorry that that human hurt you like that…" he apologized sadly. Mabel nodded in agreement, her facial expression contorted with grief.

"Yeah...I'm sure he really didn't mean to do that!" she insisted, even though that it was up in the air whether or not Grunkle Stan squishing Bluebell was an accident or not, "We're sorry if he wound up hurting you that badly…"

Bluebell gave the twins a small, appreciative smile. "Oh, it's okay…" she replied softly, "I'm just lucky I survived that encounter was all...luckily, all I needed was a faerie dust transfusion and some rest and then I was perfectly fine a couple of months later!" Rosemary nodded and smiled tenderly.

"We faeries heal more faster and more easily than humans when we get injured in some way..." she explained towards the twins, "Evenly so, even if we're all magical, that doesn't really mean we're immortal in the end...but still, we all just try to take it in stride…"

The twins were quite amazed that the faeries' abilities to heal so well, but regardless, they still felt a twinge of guilt gnawing away at their hearts like a woodpecker pecking away on a tree trunk. "Still, though…" continued Mabel earnestly, "we're both so sorry you went through all that, Bluebell…"

"Yeah…" Dipper agreed in a solemn tone, "you must humans are nothing but monsters, huh?" However, as both twins were half-expecting Bluebell to look more upset or angry with them, she instead gave them both a warm, forgiving smile.

"No, I do not…" she confirmed truthfully, fluttering back up straight in front of the twins' faces, "I know you both are kind and sweet children, so I know I have nothing to worry about when you two are around. Still, I honestly appreciate how worried you both are for me..."

Then, as if to make her proudly-said statement true, she then gave each of the twins a small, but reassuring peck on their cheeks. The twins' faces went more red than apples upon such an affectionate gesture, but they could only break out into big smiles and shy chuckles in the end, causing the other faeries to join in their laughter once again.

However, before any more merry-making could be done, Rosemary gently eased the group down and gave the twins a smile. "Well, shall we get this tour started then?" she asked finally, "Can't risk burning anymore daylight, eh?" The twins beamed from ear-to-ear in agreement.

"Of course!" Dipper grinned. He turned to Mabel. "You got the camera ready, Mabes?" he asked. Mabel took off the lens cap off the camera's lens and gave him a cheery thumbs-up.

"Ready, Dip-Dip!" she stated. Rosemary giggled in her hand.

"Very well! Let's set off now!" she rallied. She fluttered away with the twins in tow, leaving behind Sage, Wattle, and Bluebell. Sage turned back to Wattle.

"Wattle, how's about you and Bluebell get, like, started with that lunch? I'm gonna join Rosemary and the twins on their little tour…" she suggested kindly. Wattle flashed her a smile.

"Right-o, mate! C'mon, Bluebell, let's go!" called Wattle happily. Bluebell giggled and readily followed Wattle to his home to prepare the Pines twins' meal.

Soon enough, Sage caught up with Dipper, Mabel, and Rosemary as the group began to walk carefully around the village to learn about faerie culture, faerie architecture, and many other topics as well. As they all ambly strolled about, Dipper noticed a few faeries busily flying about, doing their work and chatting with friends down below. Some of them even noticed the twins pass by and gave them both a friendly wave and even a chipper-sounding "hello" or "how are you doing?".

Dipper admired how friendly and hospitable these faeries were. Even after the times some members of their clan wound up having...less than ideal run-ins with humans in the past, they were all hoping to still make friends with one human kind and gentle enough to reciprocate their genuine kindness with each other...

...all expect for one, that is…

With a faerie as old-fashioned and brash like Oak around, poor Dipper could feel his heart become heavy with doubt on whether or not this day would turn out well in the end. As much as he still desired to learn more about faerie culture, having Oak practically breathe down his neck made him quite uneasy. At this point, he was simply praying neither he nor Mabel would do something accidental or harsh enough to evoke Oak's hidden wrath, but he also didn't want to upset or insult Rosemary or her friends in any way as well.

'_Rosemary's been nothing but kind to us since we've met...but, at the same time...I don't wanna get on Oak's bad side…_' he thought sadly. He looked forward to see Mabel, Sage, and Rosemary chattering happily, all ready to finally commence with the tour. He sighed to himself and clutched Journal #3 in his hands, feelings of doubt and apparent fear swirling in his mind.

"I better just take this in stride...like how the faeries try to do in life…" he whispered softly to no one but himself.

But poor Dipper could only dwindle on that thought for a little while longer as he, Mabel, and the pair of female faeries soon began their little tour around the fabled village of the Gravity Falls faeries.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

**A bit of a shorter chapter this time around, but it does contain a few more important details nonetheless!**

**-The mysterious faerie shown at the end of the last chapter gets a proper introduction today! Oak will act as something of a minor antagonist throughout this story, as in he isn't planning to harm the twins (in spite of his highly-suspicious and rough-and-tumble persona) but he still doesn't like the fact of humans being around a tiny village made for faeries. That and he's the only member of the faerie group that's not as sunny and sweet as the rest of his clan. Basically, think of him as a grumpy dad more than anything. I was also hoping to make his relationship with Rosemary something of a "nature vs. nurture"-type connection, with Oak (nature) and his stubborn headstrongness and Rosemary (nurturing) with her motherly understanding.**

**-In addition, he does have a backstory that does play later into the story, with the mention that his grandfather was one of the faeries to colonize to the Falls, but it will be brought up in full detail in a later chapter, explaining where his distrust in humans came from. Basically, I don't wanna make him seem as one-dimensional as I did with Edward Viscount, my antagonistic OC from my other GF fic, "Saudade".**

**-Just for the sake of continuity, the faerie shown in the episode "Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons" gets a name and a bit of a personality this time around, with this chapter describing her as overly-curious, though now more frightful and timid around humans since her encounter with Grunkle Stan. As you can see, she had managed to survive her fate and had fully-recovered from meeting Stan, but however, I still wanted to make sure not every faerie that encountered a human came out great as well, so it wouldn't feel like a cop out. On that note, this also means that "Lavender", the faerie from "Land Before Swine" that Soos swatted away, wound up getting nixxed for real, just as leverage.**

**Anyways, Chapter Four may take a bit longer to write, what with my job changing up my schedule for the time being and the fact that I have two other stories under my belt (being another OK K.O. story and my first attempt of an Ed, Edd, n' Eddy fic) planned for release this month, but I promise that it'll come at some point in the span of a month as expected (Late May best scenario, early June worst scenario).**

**Until then, hope you've enjoyed everything so far and I'll see you all later!**

**~Thunderbyrd**


	4. Chapter 4: Much Ado About Faeries

**First things first, I'd like to sincerely apologize for the wait for this chapter. Between working at my job at the casino and working on two or three other fics at the same time (one being an Ed, Edd, n' Eddy fic that's been kicking my butt throughout all of May), I didn't have a chance to finish up most of this chapter for the longest time…**

**Still though, Chapter Four is at least finished up, albeit very slightly shorter than the first two chapters. Today, Dipper and Mabel will be going on a little tour with Rosemary and Sage, while Oak continues to have his doubts about having humans in his home. Enjoy, gals and guys! :D**

**Gravity Falls is owned by Alex Hirsch and Disney. (I do not own any of its characters nor its properties. This is purely a non-profit fanfic made for fun).**

* * *

**THE FAERIES OF THE FALLS**

**CHAPTER FOUR: MUCH ADO ABOUT FAERIES**

"Come on, Snapdragon, keep that stance nice and levelled! Ivy, careful where you aim that arrow of yours! Valerian, please tighten those shoulders of yours!"

As Rosemary and Sage were busily showing Dipper and Mabel around the main village to talk about the faeries' culture and mannerisms, Oak, the clan's bold and stony-faced leader, was off at another section of the village training a small group of three other faeries in the art of archery. He had given them some handmade bows and arrows made from sticks and carved stones and was busily coaching them to make sure they were fully prepared to protect themselves for when disaster should strike.

Or _trying_ to coach them anyways…

With the benevolent and doe-eyed faeries not having a single violent bone in their bodies, they weren't as combat-ready as Oak was, nor willing to be as such in that case. Oak, in question, had been practically defensive archery for many years, a trait he had picked up from his grandfather years ago, and by now, he was considered as a precise and skillful archer amongst his fellow faerie friends and he was exceedingly proud to be seen as such.

They were all practicing their bow-and-arrow skills close by the village's old watermill, up on a grassy knoll close by the edge of the forest, but not too close towards the outside of said forest as not to warrant any incoming predators. Their practice area was close by a thick wall of colorful sycamore trees, and Oak had set up target boards to help his students to know where to aim.

Unfortunately, the other faeries proved to be lousy shots; some arrows would aimlessly fly over the target, some arrows wouldn't even reach the board itself, and _should_ an arrow actually hit the board, it was far off from the center where it hit. Oak groaned in irritation as his students continued fumbling about with their old-fashioned weapons. They were all tired and nervous to be handling such weaponry.

"Come on, you lot! It's not that hard, just steady your stance and keep your eye on the target!" Oak reminded again, doing his best to goad his crew into succeeding, but with little to no avail.

One particular faerie amongst the group, a lithe, male with poofy, orange hair, gold eyes, peach-colored skin, and a pink Greek tunic-and-skirt combo seemed to be struggling more so than the rest as he tried his hardest to properly hold his bow and arrow. His sweaty palms were apparently the reason why he was handling his bow so sloppily, and his jittery, nervous demeanor didn't seem to make anything better.

Suddenly, the peach-colored faerie shot his first arrow...but at the worst possible time. He had just been in the middle of trying to position the trajectory of his arrow, but his sweat-covered fingers slipped away his bow, causing him to let go of the arrow unexpectedly.

The spring-loaded arrow shot straight up in the air, barely reaching up towards the branches up on the tall trees. Oak certainly noticed this and gasped; should that arrow fall back down in the path of an unknowing faerie, that could only spell harm.

"Wayward arrow! Everyone, get under the canopy!" he warned hastily with a shout. Soon enough, he and the other faeries immediately flew away from the targeting area and towards a nearby small hut made from broad leaves and twigs. It was built to act as a protective shell in case of any falling items that could potentially harm any of the faeries.

The arrow flew and lingered up in the air for a while until it then fell straight back down to Earth again. The faeries watched from the safety of their canopy as the arrow struck back down on the ground, the arrowhead dug firmly into the ground upon impact. Oak and the faeries breathed a sigh of relief; luckily, no one had been hurt.

But still, Oak couldn't help but to give the faerie who shot said arrow a rather agitated expression.

"Snapdragon, for the love of Gaea, be careful when shooting that arrow! You could have stabbed some faerie's eye out with that!" Oak shouted, giving the peach-colored faerie his most serious tone and his most disapproving face yet. Snapdragon recoiled and gulped in fight. He was usually a nervous, lily-livered, and clumsy kind-of faerie, and he really didn't like confrontation, especially when it involved Oak.

"S-S-Sorry, Mr. Oak! I-I didn't mean to, h-h-honest…" Snapdragon gasped, flinching away from Oak's stern face. One of Snapdragon's friends who was part of Oak's archery team, a female faerie with light green skin, brown eyes, brunswick green hair styled in a pixie cut, and had a short, brown Greek dress that reached down to her upper knees, then floated up beside her upset friend, annoyed by Oak's brash harshness.

"Hey, Oak, calm down!" she chided at him while rubbing Snapdragon's back comfortingly, "Snapdragon just made a mistake was all! It's not like we're as good with using this dumb arrows like you are!"

Oak rolled his eyes at the young, green friend's snappish nature. Ivy was the kind of faerie to not take any guff from anyone, especially from himself. Sure, she was as kind-hearted and helpful as the rest of her clan, but she would be very defensive should any of her friends would get hurt (physically or emotionally) by anyone, especially that hurt faerie was Snapdragon, her closest friend.

'_Always a spitfire, this one…_' he grumbled to himself before he turned back to her. "Ivy, that is _precisely_ why I'm training you guys in archery! So that when a predator arrives in our home, we'd all be prepared to save ourselves from harm!"

Ivy scoffed and suppressed the urge to roll her own eyes as well. "You act as if we have a predator come by our home every day…" she snarked. Oak groaned tiredly as he put away his bow and arrow inside of his quiver.

"It's just as a precaution!" Oak reminded, "Anything dangerous could easily pop up in our village? Remember when that angry raccoon came in and nearly ate all our rations last spring?"

Ivy still wasn't convinced, as well as Snapdragon as he bravely looked up at Oak. "W-Well...the raccoon was only angry because it had a thorn stuck on his paw. He did calm down once Sage helped to heal him and he did leave us alone afterwards…" he added matter-of-factly. Oak sneered.

"Well, be that as it may, I still don't see why Rosemary would simply allow two humans to parade around our home like this! For God-knows how long, I've been protecting this village from humans trying to pollute or smash up everything and then suddenly, one of our own kin easily lets two of them in like we're a youth hostel!" grumbled Oak.

"Oak, I doubt these humans are like the ones you keep describing...these ones seem much more innocent to me…" Ivy insisted rationally. The third and final faerie from the group, a hazel-eyed male with light tan skin, and wavy, sky blue hair, wearing a matching, dark blue-colored toga joined the group as well.

"I side with Ivy as well, Oak. There really should be no reason to fear most humans, especially towards these two humans visiting our home." he reminded calmly with a light, soothing, almost-sleepy voice.

"Valerian, I don't fear humans, I just want us to be extra cautious is all! Having two humans nearly as tall as trees simply waltz around basically spells nothing but disaster to me..." Oak corrected towards the blue-toned faerie, whom in return, simply gave Oak a patient nod.

"Oak, I understand you want to protect us all from potential danger and we do appreciate your actions…" assured Valerian, trying to avoid the loud scoff Ivy gave out afterwards before continuing again, "but you must trust us. Those humans are not menaces nor are they violent in any fashion."

Oak still didn't seem too sure. "Maybe they aren't intentionally violent, but still, these two humans _are_ children. And last I checked, many children tend to be clumsy and way too curious for their own good." he stated.

Ivy, Valerian, and Snapdragon each raised an eyebrow at Oak; the irony regarding his declaration about "creatures being too curious for their own good" was not lost on them, considering the faeries weren't really any better..

"So, what're you planning to do about it then?" asked Ivy curiously. Snapdragon grimaced worriedly beside her.

"You're not going to hurt those humans? A-Are you?" Snapdragon queried nervously. Oak sighed softly, having just packed up his belongings off the ground.

"Of course not! Even _I_ wouldn't murder a human like that, I'm not a barbarian!" he admitted sharply and seriously, "And even if I _wanted_ to, Rosemary would have my head on a stake if I did something to harm her new friends. Regardless, their presence still puts me on edge and I'm not too sure what to do for now…"

Ivy snidely frowned at him. "You can get over it and go about your day like a normal faerie?" she suggested sarcastically. Valerian shot Ivy a disapproving frown, causing the snarky creature to settle down before he spoke back up to Oak again.

"Oak, if Rosemary has trusted her own heart and instincts that these twins are harmless," Lotus wisely advised towards the burly faerie, "then I feel it's best that we respect her wishes. Simple as that…"

Ivy nodded and smirked. "Agreed. And who knows, Oak? Maybe you may get to like these humans in the end?" she offered with a knowing chuckle, Snapdragon nodding alongside her.

Oak frowned in uncertainty. Admittedly, while there actually _was_ a tiny part of him wished that he was truly wrong about all humans being violent and uncaring, another part of him still advised to continue keeping a sharp eye upon Dipper and Mabel, regardless of what his friends may say.

"I'm not sure, you three…" he sighed, "I do trust Rosemary, but having these humans around just doesn't sit right with me…" He then finished packing up his stuff and slung his archery gear over his back, sighing tiredly.

"If it's all the same to you, I'm heading back to the village for some rest…" said Oak towards the others, "We'll continue training tomorrow afternoon." And with that, Oak fluttered away from the practicing area and down towards the lane that led back to the village. The other faeries sighed in relief as Oak finally left; archery training really wasn't their strong suit.

"Maybe O-Oak is right...we're all due for a little rest…" Snapdragon piped up softly before Valerian yawned softly in response.

"Same here, I wanna get a nap in before…*yawn*...the day is through…" Valerian added with a commonly-expected yawn. He always had a knack for sleeping throughout the day, only out of habit. Ivy shrugged alongside her male comrades.

"Works with me...whatever gets me out of this dumb archery stuff…" she sighed. And soon, Ivy, Valerian, and Snapdragon packed up the rest of their things before the three of them flew back towards the village together, all hoping that Oak would soon settle down about this whole "humans are bad" nonsense.

* * *

Elsewhere, Rosemary and Sage were continually and happily showing Dipper and Mabel Pines all around their beautiful village home, all taking in the wonderful sights of Mother Nature during their little jaunt. Mabel was taking as many photos she could take for their Journal (which wouldn't deal as much of a problem seeing as she and Dipper packed at least eight extra rolls of film for their camera just in case) and Dipper was excitedly and quickly jotting down as much information about faeries that Rosemary or Sage would spout during their tour in a small notebook.

Right now, they had just finished touring around village center and were passing by the local food gardens where the faeries would grow all kinds of fruits and vegetables for them to eat. There were strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, and cherry plants, bushels of carrots and potatoes growing within the fresh soil, and there was even stalks of wheat and corn growing high in the fields. Everything looked so ripe and fresh and delicious!

There, the twins could see a few faeries buzzing around the gardens, either planting new food seeds in the dirt or digging up any fruits or vegetables that were done growing or were simply watering or tending to any baby plants that needed nourishment. Some faeries were even seen harvesting flower petals and stems to be used for food, making clothing, and building a faerie would spot Rosemary, Sage, and the twins, they'd give the group a sweet smile and a friendly hand wave towards them, which the group would return kindly back at them.

Next, after touring around the gardens, the two faeries took Dipper and Mabel towards the village's watermill, which help supplied and purified fresh water from the local stream for the village. There, the twins saw Snapdragon, Ivy, and Valerian there, the three of them fluttering back to the village after finishing their archery lesson. The trio of faeries beamed brightly and waved happily up at the twins, even going as far as to greet them with a cheerful "Hello!" as well. The twins smiled and jovially returned the gesture afterwards.

Soon, the twins and their faerie friends reached back to another section of the village, which housed many of the faeries' own homes. One of these wooden-made homes also belonged to Wattle, a yellow-painted home sprawled around one of the trees' trunks. The decadent scent of freshly-cooked vegetables and spices wafted around the home, indicating that he and Bluebell were still busily cooking up Dipper and Mabel's welcome lunch. The smell of the food was already enough to cause the twins' mouths to water, but they didn't have time to dwell on that as their little tour continued on.

They all even passed by Oak's home, which looked only slightly bigger than the other faeries' houses as it was perched strong and securely around the trunk of a large, orange-leafed sequoia tree. Oak was too busy storing away his archery items inside his safety of his home to bother to greet Rosemary or the humans. The gentle footsteps the twins were making weren't enough to cause any tremors, given how small he was compared to them, but he still couldn't help but to frown unsurely to himself as the group walked and flew past his home, chattering merrily all the while.

Oak felt the humans waltz by his home and couldn't help but to let out a soft groan afterwards. He still had a bad feeling in his gut about these humans parading around his home, in spite of Rosemary's assurance. Even since of what happened to his grandfather many years ago, he still couldn't bring himself to trust humans...at least, right now anyways. He didn't initially _want_ to distrust humans, but experience and past incidents with his other faerie friends caused him to be more protective over time.

But still, Oak didn't want to upset Rosemary either, in spite of his wariness. She already had taken a strong liking towards Dipper and Mabel, and should Oak wind up doing something that might cause the humans to be scared or run off, he'd surely receive the lecture of a lifetime from Rosemary, that he knew.

'_Grandpa Quercus wouldn't approve of this...but I have to be strong and supportive for Rosemary…_' he sadly noted internally. For now, Oak had to simply wait this day out until the humans were able to head back home at the end of the day.

"Rosemary...you better be right about this…" he muttered aloud softly. Soon, he felt his stomach rumble a bit. Apparently, archery class must've worked up an appetite for him.

With nothing else to do for the rest of the day aside from worrying, Oak decided it best to get a little something to snack on as he had his things packed on before exiting his home to head outside and fly towards the center of the village.

* * *

The tour soon ended a few more minutes later as Dipper, Mabel, Rosemary, and Sage decided to take a little rest underneath one of the tall oak trees that stood a few feet from the center of the village. It was around 4:00-ish right now, and it wouldn't be dark for another few more hours, so the twins were still able to mill around for a little while longer until dusk would arrive.

Fresh sunlight trickled past the tree branches above the two kids, bathing them with thin beams of warm light as they contently relaxed on the soft, moss-covered ground. Rosemary sat happily on Mabel's right knee, while Sage simply laid comfortably on her back upon Dipper's head, since the boy had decided to take off his (or rather formerly Wendy's) deerstalker cap to let the sun shine on his hair. The faeries were both so blessed to share Mother Nature's bountiful beauty with their newest friends.

Dipper breathed in a fresh, hefty amount of oxygen. The air in the village smelled sweet and clean, partially due to all the vast variety of flowers grown around the area. It made Dipper feel truly at ease.

"Rosemary, your home is something to be believed!" he complimented with a blissful sigh, "I've never felt this close to nature…" Mabel nodded happily in agreement.

"Yeah, everything here looks so green and beautiful!" she added. Rosemary blushed modestly and gave the twins a sweet, appreciative smile.

"Well, thank you, sweeties!" she giggled, "We certainly do keep a tight ship around here!" Sage nodded agreeingly as she was still lazily sprawled on top of Dipper's soft hat.

"Yep, nothing beats basking in Mother Nature's inviting and comforting glow…" Sage replied calmly, stretching her limbs freely as the afternoon sun beamed down upon her and her friends. Dipper smiled softly, looking down at a small patch of daisies on the ground below him, where a pair of bumblebees were seen buzzing about, trying to collect pollen for themselves.

"I gotta say, though…" he continued, "This may just be one of my favorite places here in Gravity Falls...I know we've only just been here for an hour or so, but this is looking already so beautiful and peaceful around here…"

"Same here…" agreed Mabel, "Even the town doesn't have beautiful sights like this…" Sage raised an eyebrow in thought.

"You little dudes have been, like, talking a lot about the Falls for a while, especially during the tour!" she commented with an interested tone. Rosemary chuckled warmly.

"I'm sure they have a good reason to, Sage..." she remarked, "Gravity Falls _is_ pretty much their home after all and who wouldn't want to live here!?" Dipper cracked the two female creatures something of an awkward half-smile.

"Technically, not exactly…" answered Dipper carefully, "Gravity Falls is our home only for the summer, so while we're in Oregon, we'll be dorming with our Grunkles in their home close by the forest." Sage seemed to look a bit downcast upon hearing that.

"You're only visiting for the summer? Bummer, man..." she asked, disappointed. Mabel casted her a kind smile.

"Don't worry, this is only the start of our summer, so hopefully we can visit up back in your home again during our stay?" she offered hopefully. Dipper, meanwhile, seemed to be more uncertain than anything.

"That is, if Oak _will_ allow us back here again…" he reminded demurely.

Rosemary and Sage looked back at each other sympathetically. Somehow, they knew Dipper might've brought up Oak again, but even so, he wasn't wrong. They both knew Oak wouldn't approve of having humans visit their home once, let alone on a daily basis. Despite of Oak begrudgingly letting Rosemary show the humans around, she knew this may only be a one-time thing for sometime.

Still, she didn't like to see Dipper looks so down in the dumps as she flew off of Mabel's knee and carefully went to Dipper's glum face, gently and motherly caressing his right cheek while looking him in the eye.

"Dipper, I understand you feel nervous with Oak around...trust us, sometimes _we_ do too, but he's only doing it as a means to protect us…" Rosemary comforted, trying to give the twins an assuring aura, "I know Oak can be brash and intimidating, but he does have a heart of gold deep down inside of him. Plus, he really uses those bows and arrows for self-defense, so I'm extremely certain he's not going to be attacking you both all willy-nilly…"

Dipper, naturally, still looked and felt apprehensive, in spite of the small smiled he tried to give to Rosemary. He truly did appreciate the red-themed faeries' unfaltering sympathy and kindness, as well as the rest of the faeries clan's hospitality, but having to deal with Oak throughout the day since after their encounter began to send chills down his spine. Rosemary could still sense Dipper's fright and decided to put an end to that.

"And before you say anything, Dipper…" she continued, her tone sounding much more serious, "yes, I know you and Mabel won't do anything to hurt us, nor that you both will try and send the location of our home to everybody in the universe, but just because Oak may not fully trust you doesn't mean the same applies to us. Me and the rest of my friends already think you two are very pure of heart, so we know you won't try anything funny while in our home…"

Dipper felt the corners of his lips twinge and curl into a smile. It was a faint smile, sure, but it still radiated shades of gratitude that was still able to be detected through the eyes and auras of their two faerie friends. Dipper chuckled ever so softly, his nerves slowly feeling much better.

"If only Oak was as understanding as _you_ guys...the world could use more optimistic and hospitable creatures like you…" Dipper admitted with a sincere, though inwardly sad tone.

Rosemary tenderly smiled up at Dipper, so touched to hear such kind words from her friend that she buzzed up closer to Dipper's face and hugged him against his right cheek. Sage, whom was just as touched, simply rolled off her back and onto her stomach to give the top of Dipper's head a hug as well, burying herself in the boy's soft, chocolate brown hair in the process. Mabel couldn't help but laugh good-heartedly at the adorable scene before her, which even prompted Dipper, Rosemary, and Sage to join in as well. The laughter continued for a quarter of a minute until Dipper spoke up.

"Rosemary, Sage...thanks for all of this...you and the other faeries have just been so kind to me and Mabel...I don't know how we can thank or repay you all for this…" Dipper said, his voice quiet and profound. Rosemary sweetly gave Dipper a motherly smile.

"You both don't need to thank or repay us...we're your friends now and we're doing all this because we care about you very much. It's not terribly often humans come by in this neck of the woods, so having two young and kind dearies like you two visit up here was a delightful surprise…" Rosemary explained gracefully as she slowly let go of her hug.

The twins lightly blushed and felt truly at ease in their hearts; somehow, Rosemary seemed to know how to make their internal emotions feel better much better as she continued speaking towards them.

"And don't you two worry about Oak. Right now, you both just worry about having a good time here. Maybe having you two around might change his views on humans after today…" Rosemary added, her smile never leaving her face. The twins smiled appreciatively at the red-haired faerie, their eyes shining with gratefulness as Sage piped up into the conversation.

"If it helps you feel better, Dipper, we can talk about something else to, like, get your mind off of Oak…?" Sage offered kindly, still burrowed within Dipper's scruffy locks. Dipper raised a curious eyebrow and looked up at the peace-loving faerie nestled on his cranium.

"Like what?" he asked confusedly. But before the faeries can prattle off any topic, Mabel grinned deviously and playfully as she thought of a certain subject that she'd knew Dipper would _love_ to talk about.

"Well...we can talk about _Wendy_ if you'd like, Dippy_?_" Mabel slyly suggested, giggling herself to bits upon seeing a faint shade of red spread across Dipper's face, his expression looking embarrassed and subdued. The two female faeries each raised a confused eyebrow.

"Wendy?" asked Sage. "Who would that be, Mabel?" questioned Rosemary curiously.

Mabel waved off their bafflement. "Ah, just a girl in Gravity Falls that Dippy here has a crush on, is all…" she crooned matter-of-factly, still having a case of the giggles. Sage and Rosemary tittered and grinned with intrigue upon instance of hearing the word "crush".

"Oh, does he now?" Sage mused interestingly as Rosemary giggled delicately at the sound of the idea of Dipper having his own little potential girlfriend. Dipper, in the meantime, spluttered and nearly choked on his tongue upon hearing that, his face now glowing brighter than lit fireworks in the sky as he craned his head back towards Mabel.

"Mabel, did you _seriously_ have to tell them that!? You could've just simply said 'friend'!" Dipper asked incredulously, trying to cover up the growing blush upon his cheeks. Mabel snickered playfully.

"Aw, c'mon, Dipperino!" she chortled cheekily, "It is the truth after all! You _were_ the one who mentioned to me that night last fall that ya still might be _pining_ for Wendy! You remember?" She giggled merrily at her little pun.

Dipper grimaced, not just from Mabel's teasy ways, but from the very memory that she brought up. The previous autumn before summer, Dipper's desire to return back to Gravity Falls were enough for him to actually consider and attempt to escape from Piedmont to be with his own true family again in Oregon. Luckily, he was caught in time before he could commit such an act and while having a heart-to-heart with his sister later that night, at one point, he briefly mentioned that he may still harbor a tiny bit of affection towards Wendy Corduroy, one of the twins' closest friends in Gravity Falls and the apple of Dipper's eye.

Even though Dipper and Wendy had ultimately decided to remain friends after the twins' first summer in Gravity Falls, Dipper couldn't help but to still think highly of Wendy throughout the days. She was his one true crush; the one person to steal his heart when no one else did. Dipper wasn't exactly a ladies' man, whether in Oregon _or_ California, so with him being an anxiety-ridden mess of emotions and social-awkwardness, the chances of him finding a proper girlfriend seems very slim in his mind.

Dipper could only sulk quietly at the thought of still falling for Wendy even after they both agreed to just stay as friends, the blush on his face toning down from bright tomato red to a light rosy pink instead. Rosemary did her best to cease her giggles, as not to upset the already-uneasy Dipper any further.

"Terribly sorry for laughing, Dipper…" she began, choking back the last little remnants of her laughs, "I wasn't meaning to poke fun at you...I just think it's kind of sweet that you have a little crush…" Sage nodded in agreement from her perch.

"Yeah, ain't nothing wrong with having a little crush, dude…" she added with a small smile and a nod, "Like, what does this Wendy gal look like, anyways?" Mabel raised her hand in excitement.

"Hang on!" she piped up, "I'll answer that for you!" She then brought over her backpack that was slumped onto the ground next to her and then zipped it open, shuffling inside for a bit before she picked up something in her hands amongst the bag's contents.

She then presented what she was looking for: her smartphone. She then turned it on and quickly scrolled through the camera's picture gallery until she found something that caught her eye, being a silly, but sweet selfie pic of Dipper and Wendy that they took a couple of weeks ago when the twins arrived back to the Falls.

She scooched over closer to Dipper and the faeries and held up the photo on the phone clearly for them to see, to which Rosemary and Sage gasped in awe, surprise, and delight upon Wendy's appearance. "Aw, Dipper! She's so beautiful!" Rosemary gazed wonderingly, her eyes twinkling with joy, "Just look at the brightness of her red hair! It really brings out the green in her eyes!"

"Yeah, man…" Sage gasped, still managing to act all nonplussed even when wrought with awe, "Though she does seem a bit older than _you_ are, Dipper…" she then commented before giving him a playful grin, "Didn't think you were into older women…"

It was at this point Dipper wished he could turn himself invisible from how embarrassing and awkward this situation was, so much so that he barely even knew what else to say at this point. Rosemary clearly noticed (and felt) Dipper's discomfort and she certainly wasn't going to let her dear friend look and feel so glum as she flew down onto Dipper's knee, looking up at him with patience and understanding.

"Oh, come on now, Dipper...there's no need to be ashamed...plenty of people have crushes on older people out there…" she assured kindly, though Dipper simply replied with a soft sigh.

"It's not really that, Rosemary...last summer when me and Mabel were visiting, Wendy sorta found out about my crush on her and...well...she explained that it's probably for the best that we should stay friends for now…" he explained, downcast. Rosemary and Sage gasped worriedly in surprise.

"Oh, dude…" murmured Sage under her breath.

"You poor thing…" Rosemary sadly remarked, tiny tears about ready to form in her eyes.

Dipper sighed again, memories of that certain adventure last summer involving Wendy, Grunkle Ford's bunker, and an evil shapeshifter flooding back into his mind. "I've done my best to cope with this, I really did...but my mind still can't help but to still be fixated on her. Mabel here can confirm so herself…" he continued, gesturing towards his sister.

Mabel solemnly nodded in agreement. "It's true…" she added, "I've tried to help him get over his crush for some time, but it's been no use. I guess it's more serious than it sounds…" Rosemary winced in sympathy.

"I see what you mean…" she muttered pityingly. Still, this wasn't gonna stop her from helping Dipper out, at least. "M-Maybe there might be a chance in future where Wendy may want to be your girlfriend, Dipper? Nothing's more genuine than true love after all!"

Rosemary's statement certainly was brimming with hope and positivity, as much as someone as unyieldingly-sweet and understanding as Rosemary was, but alas, Dipper didn't feel that much better afterwards. Somehow, he knew it was an absolute long shot.

"Thanks for saying that, Rosemary...but I know it'd be too good to be true…at this point, it'd just be simply hopeless..." sighed Dipper, lowering his head and crossing his arms over his arched knees (but very carefully enough as not to accidentally squish Rosemary) as he rested his head down on his arms and knees, his heart broken and his hopes dashed.

Rosemary almost felt the need to choke back an incoming sob. Seeing Dipper look so nervous and shy throughout the day was already disheartening enough to her, so to see him look depressed was really putting her over the edge. Should the chance she would see him cry at some point, she'd be straight-up inconsolable from here on out.

She was about to come up to Dipper to try and give him some more much-needed comfort when Sage, who was sporting a rather determined and thoughtful expression on her face, flew down from the top of Dipper's head and landed down on Dipper's other knee. She silently gave Rosemary a nod, almost as if to say "don't worry, I got this" to her. Rosemary looked puzzled but said and did nothing afterwards as Sage tried to give Dipper her undivided attention.

"Dipper, dude...can you look at me, please?" Sage beckoned in a tone that mixed gentleness and firmness into one. Dipper slowly brought his head back up, squarely looking into Sage's brown eyes, which was aflame with determination before the faerie began to address towards the human boy.

"Dipper, you should _never_ think or say that anything is hopeless…" she reminded in her most serious tone of voice yet, "Thinking negatively won't get you anywhere in life, whether it involves finding true love or not…"

Dipper blinked in surprise at Sage's sudden change of tone. As of now, she was simply a calm and always-smiling kind of faerie with a constantly half-baked demeanor and expression, but now, here she was with a sharp, but fair voice and a disappointed frown plastered on her face. It greatly worried and frightened Dipper to bits, but he didn't dare say a word as Sage kept talking up at him.

"Now, Dipper, I may not be a mind reader, but I can certainly feel your emotional aura from within. It surges and pulsates out from love for this Wendy chick, and yet, it hurts at the same time because you feel she won't love you as a potential mate over time…" the hippie-esque faerie added matter-of-factly, "From what I can tell, you and Wendy both hold quite a strong connection with each other, correct?"

Dipper's eyes were glazed with sadness as he took in Sage's words to heart. She certainly wasn't whistling Dixie when it came to reading other people's auras.

"Indeed…" he agreed with a mild-sounding, humble voice, "She was one of my first true friends ever made. She's just so calm and collected, she's strong both in heart and in body strength, she knows how to have fun...let's face it, she's one of the coolest friends I have…"

He then let out another sad sigh. "But, what can I do, Sage? There's no way she'll fall for a scrawny little nerd like me…" he finished, hanging his head lower than ever. Sage, meanwhile, wasn't finished herself. She gave Dipper a confident smile.

"On the contrary," she began knowingly, "That is, like, far from the truth, Dipper. I can internally tell that you possess a heart of gold deep inside, as well as a loving soul…" Dipper's blush returned for the upteenth time that day as she felt an incoming smile lightly tug at his lips.

"You really think so?" he asked, a smidgen of hope returning in his heart. Sage nodded with a smile while she carefully brought Dipper's head up to eye level with her hand..

"I _know_ so...it should be what's on the _inside_ that should be cherished when it comes to love, not on the outside. And even so, you're a pretty adorable and sweet kinda guy...there's no way you'd be without a girlfriend in your life!" she added. Dipper's blush bashfully lit up even brighter at the sound of Sage's compliment.

"And listen, I may not be able to guarantee it, but maybe in the future," Sage assured optimistically as she finished up her speech, "Wendy might, like, decide to date you when you both get older; maybe not today or tomorrow, but someday in the future, it might happen…and even if that doesn't go to plan, at least you won't worry about losing Wendy as a true friend...here in our home, us faeries don't put a price over true friendship..."

Dipper managed to give Sage something of a half-smile, her wise and comforting words sinking into both his mind and heart. All he could do was sit there quietly, reflecting on what Sage had told him; while he absolutely hoped that there _may_ be a sliver of a chance that Wendy may return his feelings one day, for now, he was simply happy to still have her as a friend.

After all, it _could_ happen...maybe one day…and even if that wouldn't work out, he'd still had Wendy as one of his closest friends.

Dipper couldn't have felt more at ease even if he tried. His smile returned back to his face in full force and he looked down at Sage with utmost gratitude.

"I-I guess that make sense...maybe there may be hope for me later…" he murmured softly, smiling all the way, "Th-Thanks, Sage...I never thought

"If there's two things that I adore, Dipper, it's nature and love…" the little green faerie confirmed with a proud nod, "Just, like, try not to lose sight of things, okay, big guy?" she asked with a giggle, which Dipper graciously returned.

"Sure thing!" he replied. Then, without warning, he gingerly scooped up Sage off his knee and, very carefully, hugged her against his chest as a thanks for cheering him up. Sage was surprised but the sudden gesture, but she didn't feel the need to struggle or complain as she happily returned the hug, her arms spread across Dipper's frame due to how small she was.

Mabel and Rosemary both watched the scene play out before them and both tried to fight to urge to "squee" adorably at it, so proud of Dipper for finally getting some warranted closure after all. Soon enough, because of how happy they were, the two of them unwarningly joined in on the hug, both laughing up a storm that even Dipper and Sage couldn't help but to join in as well. The laughter and hugs lasted for about a minute until suddenly, they all heard a noise from afar.

"DIPPER! MABEL! SOUP'S ON, MATES!"

Soon, the sound of Wattle's voice was carried out from across the forest, coupled with the intoxicating smell of a freshly-cooked and delicious-smelling meal that filled the forest air within seconds. Rosemary beamed and flew up and away from the group, taking in the scent as her wings buzzed rapidly in excitement.

"Ooh, that smells positively scrumptious!" she sighed out, with Sage buzzing up and sniffing the air alongside her.

"Yeah, man...Wattle surely isn't kidding around with this one…" she commented with a lazy grin before she turned back towards the kids, "C'mon, you two...don't wanna miss out on this meal!"

Rosemary nodded and smiled brightly. "Indeed! Wattle's cooking is something to behold in our home!" she praised as she gave the twins an encouraging smile, "Trust us, you'll both love his meal!"

With Rosemary and Sage already fluttering away towards the village, Mabel and Dipper curiously looked at each other and shrugged before they each stood back up off the ground, packed up any belongings they had, and followed the faeries back towards their home, the delicious odor of fresh food getting themselves very hungry as well.

Along the way, Dipper was starting to feel himself become way better and more calm about being in the faeries' home. Sure, having someone as intimidating as Oak around would be a bit of a challenge, but he and Mabel weren't going to let that get to them throughout this little outing. Like Rosemary suggested, they should be focusing on having a good, relaxing time instead.

And regardless of what may happen during today, that's just what they were going to do...

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

**Well, looks like Dipper finally feeling more comfortable about being with these faeries after all! But, will everything in the next chapter be as hopeful as it was in this chapter? We'll just have to see soon enough, but first, a couple more facts regarding this chapter!**

**-The new faeries introduced in this chapter (being Snapdragon, Ivy, and Valerian) shall return for the next two-to-four chapters with bigger roles; their introduction here was really meant to be a springboard for how they wind up inadvertently cause the climax a few chapters in (**_**how**_ **they do that, I ain't tellin' ya yet! ;) ). **

**-The next few chapters will also heighten their personality quirks a bit more prominently, with Snapdragon being a skittish and clumsy trainwreck, Ivy being a protective big sister-figure who takes no guff from anyone, and Valerian being an always-sleepy peacekeeper (his name and persona being references towards valerian plants being used to aid sleep disorders).**

**-To any new readers, if you need proper context about that little tidbit about "Dipper running away", it's meant to be a direct reference to one of my last GF fics, "Saudade", which involved Dipper missing the Falls terribly and wanting to run away there to live there forever without Mabel knowing. The part about Dipper still holding romantic feelings towards Wendy is also a throwback to said fic, where I've decided to have one of the faeries decide to try and help Dipper through that situation (and considering I see all my GF stories as part of my headcanon, all connected and fitted in after the events of the show, I guess you can say Sage was right when she said that maybe Dipper and Wendy **_**did**_ **manage to be a couple after all, eh? ;) ).**

**-And lastly, not to spoil anything in the last chapter, but let's just say that Mabel will be having a little bit of a one-on-one chat with Bluebell, the faerie that was involved with Grunkle Stan in "Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons", just to get something troubling off her chest.**

**Well, that's all I have to say for now, so until then, thanks for reading and sticking around so far, and I'll try and get the next chapter done before June is over, if not then early July!**

**EDIT AS OF 6/23/19: So, I've made a bit of a mistake regarding the name of Oak's grandfather. I've renamed him to Quercus, rather than Sequoia, due to sequoia trees tying into redwood trees rather than oak trees. That was simply lack of research on my part and I truly apologize for that. Chapter Five should be up before the end of June.**

**~Thunderbyrd**


	5. Chapter 5: A Lunch and a Lecture

**Hey, fellas! Back already with another new chapter! :D**

**Bit of a heads-up though, I did have to change a few things up a bit when making this one.**

**Last chapter, I've mentioned in the ending facts bit that this chapter will feature both the faeries and twins having lunch and then a scene where Mabel and Bluebell will have a scene together, but however, because I wanted to get another chapter done before June ends, I've decided to split this chapter in two, with this chapter showing a bit more personality from the three other faeries I've introduced in the last chapter, and the next one starring Mabel and Bluebell on its own, as to hopefully make it more meaningful when the two have their little chat.**

**In addition, I've made a bit of a mistake while giving Oak's grandfather a name. His old name, Sequoia, that I've called him in the last chapter, was more in relation to redwood trees, so to make it more meaningful and fitting, the name was switched from Sequoia to Quercus. I've made a little notice at the end of the last chapter in regards to that slip-up. My bad… :(**

**Anyways, with that out of the way, let's commence with Chapter Five, shall we?**

**Gravity Falls is owned by Alex Hirsch and Disney (I do not own any of its characters nor its properties. This is purely a non-profit fanfic made for fun).**

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**THE FAERIES OF THE FALLS**

**CHAPTER FIVE: A LUNCH AND A LECTURE**

When Rosemary, Sage, and the twins arrived back at their idyllic village to meet up with Wattle and Bluebell, they were amazed at what they saw when they arrived at the village's outdoor eating area (which was mainly a few flat rocks nestled in a grassy knoll, sheltered under a large, blue-leafed oak tree).

Presented on large wooden plate that was sitting on a large, flat rock was a steaming, freshly-cooked dish of vegetable medley, consisting of onions, red peppers, broccoli, carrots, zucchini, basil, and celery. Each vegetable introduced in the meal had been slow-roasted to perfection and were all carefully mixed together, giving off a fresh, varietal, and salivating aroma all across the village. The twins found themselves unexpectedly drooling at this bountiful and well-crafted meal shown before them, to where Wattle, the faerie that was half-responsible for cooking this masterpiece, simply gave them both a smirk upon seeing how enraptured they were.

"If you mates think looking at this food's pretty good, then you'll go ape when you _taste_ it!" Wattle confidently remarked with a sly wink.

Dipper and Mabel didn't need to be told twice about that! They soon both sat upon some smaller rocks as seats, each picking up a wooden spoon before they both took their first bite of Wattle's food.

And it was then when the twins had entered Nirvana.

The perfect, succulent blend of fresh, roasted vegetables stewing around in their mouths sent their taste buds in a tizzy! If the twins weren't already into vegetable medley before this day, they were certainly hooked onto this certain dish now! Dipper and Mabel had already scarfed down half their meal before Rosemary, Sage, Wattle, and Bluebell, whom were all joining in to share this delicious lunch with the twins, their enthusiasm being enough to make the four faeries laugh merrily.

"Dipper, Mabel, slow down, dears!" chortled Rosemary, "You both don't want to get stomach cramps!" Wattle sat back in his seat with interest.

"Crikey, I knew my cooking was good, but not _that _good!" he commented through his chuckles as the twins blushed in embarrassment by how barbaric they must've seemed while eating before they hastily calmed themselves down. Dipper gulped down a wad of chewed celery and peppers in his mouth and nervously smiled at the faeries below him.

"Uh...heh-heh, sorry, guys…" he said with a blush. Mabel, meanwhile, looked just as apologetic as her twin as she tried swallowing away bits of vegetable still caught in her mouth so she wouldn't choke by accident.

"Yeah...sowwy…" Mabel added, her mouth still full of food. As the twins continued chowing down without a care (though more civilly, I might add), the rest of the faerie group were about ready to join in on the meal when they soon met with three extra visitors that were also enraptured by the scent of Wattle's dish.

The arrivals turned out to be Snapdragon, Ivy, and Valerian, the three faeries that had just finished practicing archery with Oak a couple of minutes ago. They were both feeling a tad bored after their training until they smelled the delicious meal from afar before deciding to check it out. It came as a delightful surprise to both ends once the threesome discovered the humans in the area eating their lunch with Rosemary and the other faeries, whom in return, all smiled upon spotting the faerie trio approach them.

"Ivy, Snapdragon, Valerian!" Rosemary greeted with a joyful grin and tone. "Nice to see you all!"

The trio returned her warm welcome with friendly waves. "H-Hey, Rosemary, everyone!" Snapdragon replied with a tiny stutter.

"Sorry we've been away for a bit." Ivy put in, "Commander Grumpy-Wings was putting us through the wringer with more dumb arrow shooting…" Rosemary chuckled softly and shook her head. That sounded like Oak alright.

"It's okay," she assured nicely, "We've actually being showing our new friends around the village on a little tour!" The three faeries smiled up at the humans, whom in turn ceased their gorging to notice their new arrivals down below. Rosemary turned back towards the twins with a soft smile.

"Dipper, Mabel, I'd like to introduce the both of you to Valerian, Snapdragon, and Ivy, some friends of ours!" smiled Rosemary, gesturing to each faerie kindly. The three faeries waved up at the twins with big smiles.

"H-Hello!"

"Nice to meet ya!"

"How's it…*yawn*...going?"

The twins happily returned the faeries' greetings with a pair of friendly hand waves. "Hello there!" they both chimed together.

Suddenly, Ivy then swooped up to Dipper's level and instantly grabbed his right hand, giving it an enthusiastic and vigorous handshake. Dipper yelped and warbled upon being shaken so suddenly by the faerie's surprisingly-capable strength. Ivy then flew over to Mabel, giving her the same bumpy handshake as well. Mabel squealed for a second before Ivy happily introduced herself.

"Welcome to our lil' neck of the woods, fellas!" she whooped excitedly as she ceased her handshake on Mabel, "I trust this visit's treating ya guys well?"

Dipper clenched his stomach and let out tiny belches in his hand. Eating tons of food and being shaken up like a martini afterwards wasn't exactly a good combination. "Urp, uh, yeah...very mu-much so…" gurgled Dipper, managing to _not_ upchuck his lunch instantaneously.

However, just as his stomach was settled, something that Ivy mentioned before suddenly sprang up in Dipper's mind.

"So, uh, you guys were doing archery? You mean, like what Oak does?" he asked in concern. Snapdragon nodded "yes" gravelly.

"P-Pretty much…" he sighed, "Oak's been attempting to teach archery to most of us h-here in the village as a way to protect ourselves from danger...though w-we really aren't the fighting type…"

"I think he's mostly worried you both might try and pull a fast one on us during your stay here…" added Ivy, prompting the twins to frown sadly.

"But we wouldn't do such a thing!" insisted Dipper. Mabel nodded.

"Yeah, we love it here! We wouldn't hurt you guys or ruin your home!" she assured sadly. Valerian gave the twins a calm, assurative, though sleepy smile.

"Hey, chillax, friends..." he calmed down with a sleepy, but supportive voice, "We know you wouldn't do anything bad, guys…*yawn*...oh, excuse me...it's just Oak being Oak as usual…" Ivy smirked lightly.

"Which means that he always acts like a big, ol' butt whenever he shows up!" she snickered in her usual, feisty manner. Mabel let out a little guffaw in response, while Dipper managed to choke back a tiny giggle. Even Rosemary and the other faeries couldn't help but chuckle at Ivy's statement.

Afterwards, Dipper's tone and face began to look more apologetic. "Still, I'm really sorry about all that Oak does to you guys...living with him must be a nightmare…" he commented softly. The other faeries simply smiled reassuringly up at the towering boy.

"I-It's not your fault, Mr. Dipper…" Snapdragon shyly replied with a small, but thankful grin, "Oak's always been the kind of faerie to act all b-brutish and such...I'm sure h-he means well, but still...he always makes m-me so nervous!" Ivy giggled cheekily at the peach-and-orange faerie.

"_Everything_ makes you nervous, Snapdragon…all the time!" she reminded playfully, nudging his arm lightly, "Remember when you've been harboring a fear towards frogs for some time?" Snapdragon shivered in fright.

"Ivy, I've seen what those things to do flies! One wrong move and I'd be caught in one of their tongues in a millisecond!" he countered pathetically. Dipper then raised a curious eyebrow down at Snapdragon.

"Wait, you're always nervous? Beg pardon, but why would you have to be so nervous around this place? Your home sounds like paradise to me!" he asked gently. Snapdragon blushed a shade of pink that matched his tunic color and rubbed his right arm awkwardly.

"I dunno...sometimes being a f-faerie can have its disadvantages, you know? Being so small and fragile...coming across danger can be inevitable to u-us whenever h-humans can be involved…that and being around Oak nearly all the time, i-it can b-be stressful!" Snapdragon explained with his occasional stutter throughout. Dipper gazed in sympathy, nearly forgetting about that one glaring flaw.

"Oh...I see what you mean…" he murmured pityingly. He may have only known Snapdragon for less than five minutes now and he was still somewhat surprised upon seeing a faerie so riddled with anxiety, but then again, it sort of made sense to him. After hearing about what happened to the other members of the faerie clan (namely being Lavender and Bluebell), whether they have been injured or wound up passing on, so to speak, Dipper knew that being a faerie the size of your palm can really have its downsides in life.

The thought of that suddenly made Dipper feel even more sorry for the faeries' sake.

He then leaned down a bit closer towards Snapdragon and, as carefully as he can possibly be, brought up his index finger and gently began rubbing Snapdragon's back with it in assurance. It felt sort of strange to Snapdragon, having a large finger rub his backside, even if it was in a gentle motion, but even so, it helped him slowly feel more reassured either way!

Dipper then looked down at him and gave him a kind smile. "I'm very sorry that you have to feel like this sometimes, but you really don't have to worry about us, Snapdragon…" he soothed, "Mabel and I aren't going to bring any harm to you, your friends, or your home. Scout's honor...right, Mabel?" he asked, turning towards his other half as he finished rubbing the faerie's back.

Mabel beamed and nodded affirmatively. "Yeppers! Nothing to worry about, Lil' Snappy!" she confirmed with two thumbs up. Snapdragon's already-pink blush soon began to shine a healthy shade of cherry red upon hearing that playful nickname, and unfortunately, the snorting laughter from Ivy next to him wasn't helping his surprised nerves either.

"HA! 'Lil' Snappy'!" she chortled playfully, giving Snapdragon a hearty slap on the back, "Good one, Mabel! Maybe I should start using that now! Hee-hee-hee!" Snapdragon spluttered and subsided into silence; he knew Ivy was only teasing, but there were times her rambunctious and wild-spirited nature can really rile him up at times, even if her teasing was meant to loosen him up in the end.

Dipper, understanding the timid discomfort Snapdragon was going through now, could only give the faerie in question a consoling grin. "Well, anyways, you really shouldn't need to worry about us, Snapdragon. All we want is to see what your home was like and how you faeries live and work here...trust us, we ain't gonna do anything to hurt you guys…"

Snapdragon smiled in relief. "Well, _that_ I know about, M-Mr. Dipper…I-I know you and your sister are g-good people..." he said reassuringly, his tone hushed slightly. Dipper held back a tiny chuckle.

"Well, I appreciate you saying that, and please, there's really no need for formalities. Just 'Dipper' will do…" the brunette boy assured with a friendly smile, which Snapdragon slowly, but graciously accepted and returned before Dipper spoke up again.

"And well...if it helps you in any way, Snapdragon, I'm kind of a nervous wreck at times myself…" he admitted without any hesitation or humility in his voice whatsoever. Snapdragon seemed beside himself with surprise at that revelation.

"_You!?_ N-Nervous?" he gasped, "How can y-you be so nervous about things y-yourself!? You're not small or d-docile like us!" Dipper shook his head and gently grinned.

"Maybe not," said Dipper thoughtfully, "But us humans can still get into trouble ourselves. Just because we're bigger than you or your friends doesn't mean we're immortal. We can still get hurt in some way, too."

Snapdragon's eyes widened at the sound of that; he hadn't realized that even humans can be just as fragile as he or his other faerie friends are. "Oh, my…" he whispered in shock, but Dipper simply shot a smile of reassurance down at him.

"But, it's not all that bad, really!" he stated, "I still got a loving family and group of friends here that will always help me out and protect me throughout whatever happens in life…" He then looked over to Mabel and gave her a tender, sincere smile.

"Especially with my twin sister beside me…" he proudly proclaimed. Mabel's cheeks blushed bright red as she returned his genuinity with the biggest, warmest, sisterly grin she could ever give to her brother. They both continued smiling at each other for four more seconds in blissful silence until Dipper turned back towards Snapdragon.

"And the same applies to you, Snapdragon. You still have a loving group of friends here that care for you just the way you are. And well, even if Oak can still be a grouch to you, at least you still have these guys, right?" he asked, looking at the rest of faeries below him.

Snapdragon slowly turned his head back towards Ivy, Valerian, and the others, whom were all smiling fondly back at the easily-worried faerie, as if to prove Dipper's point. The peach-colored faerie soon felt himself slowly but surely smile back in response. Sure, there can be times where his nervousness can elicit playful barbs and innocent teases from his friends, but in the end, the other faeries still saw Snapdragon as a friendly, loyal, and true friend, in spite of his cautious and worrisome personality. Even Ivy, who always loved to tease Snapdragon for being a scaredy-cat, still adored her closest friend to bits and would never dream of losing him, ever.

The thought of that soon brought a small, proud smile upon Snapdragon's face.

"I guess you have a point there, Dipper…" Snapdragon admitted in his softest tone ever, his voice free from any stutters, "Maybe I'm just being too precautious is all…" Dipper grinned in understanding.

"There isn't anything wrong with being a bit precautious once in a while…" Dipper insisted with a tender smile, "It just helps you become more aware of things is all...Mabel and Rosemary can already tell you have much of a worrywart I can be…" His reply was met with a pair of playful smirks, courtesy of the aforementioned females Dipper has referred to.

"You, a worrywart, dearie?" gasped Rosemary with a mock-innocent tone, "Perish the thought!" Ivy rolled her eyes and snickered softly.

"Just what the world needs: _Two_ Snapdragons…" she commented jokingly, prompting some of the faeries to giggle softly.

Mabel sniggered delightfully. "It gets even worse when you see him at home!" Mabel mused matter-of-factly, "I live with him all the time, so you know I have to endure his stutters and him being all sweaty and scared and junk!" Dipper rolled his eyes in defiance.

"Please, Mabes, I'm not _that _bad!" he replied, but Mabel only shot him a knowing grin, waggling her finger at him.

"Oh, really?" she sweetly pondered, "So, when you were scared that when I was dating a zombie during our first summer here, _that_ wasn't being precautious?" Dipper scoffed lightly at that memory.

"It's not like that was a 'zombie' in the first place…" he countered smugly, fully knowing about Mabel's old boyfriend "Norman" was, in actuality, just a group of gnomes in disguise instead of being a zombie. The other faeries in the background watched the twins prattle on about their past memoir with confusion.

"Z-Zombie?" gasped Bluebell.

"Gnomes?" uttered Sage.

"What the bloomin' heck are these fellas goin' on about?" Wattle asked under his breath, perplexed.

"Search me…" shrugged Valerian in return.

The twins then ceased their comradery to notice the strange expressions the faeries were giving them before Dipper coughed awkwardly, realizing that these faeries probably don't know what they were talking about. "Ahem, okay, so, yeah...I guess I can be _too_ precarious as well…" he admitted with a soft smile, "But, it's for good reason. We always search for mysterious things like monsters and creatures and other oddities the Falls has to offer, so Mabel and I always have to keep a close eye out for any dangerous things lurking around!"

The faeries gasped and whistled impressively at Dipper's proclamation, with Mabel following up with a proud nod of her head.

"Yeah, it's kinda like our calling or whatev's!" Mabel brushed off boastfully..

Ivy chuckled softly. "Well, we may not have monsters and stuff here, but you should still see how overly-cautious Snapdragon can be sometimes, even when its for simple things!" she snorted with Valerian nodding slowly next to her.

"Indeed…" the sleepy faerie piped up dozily, "One time, Snapdragon wound up fortifying his home with extra wood and ropes because of some bad weather passing through…" Mabel raised a confused eyebrow.

"What's so bad about that?" she asked.

"It was only a small rain shower that lasted ten minutes. It wasn't like a hurricane or a tornado passing through or anything…" Valerian added knowingly. Snapdragon looked away in mild embarrassment.

"Still never h-hurts to be cautious…" he uttered timidly. Dipper softly chuckled.

"No, it does not…" he agreed, "But...try not to let your worries cloud your mind too much, okay, Snapdragon?" Snapdragon smiled brightly up at Dipper and nodded in confirmation.

"I'll do m-my best, Dipper!" he answered back with sincerity until then, his tone and face began to deflate into sadness, "I just wish Oak would f-feel the same way…"

The other faeries began to look silently despondent upon mention of their more burly and untrusting ally. "Yes, well, Oak _can_ tend to be...well...old-fashioned and strict about rules sometimes…" Rosemary murmured, looking very glum. The twins gazed in concern.

"Isn't there any way you guys can talk some sense into him?" Mabel piped up in concern hopefully, only to get a scoff from Ivy in return.

"Pssh, fat chance! Guy's as stubborn as a mule…" huffed Ivy, crossing her arms.

Valerian nodded sadly. "I'm afraid it's true, friends...we've tried to discuss to him that not all humans are bad, but…*yawn*...he just won't listen to reason…" Dipper slumped forwards in thought.

"There has to be something we can do...I don't want you all to be living in fear for the rest of your lives!" said Dipper worriedly. The faeries smiled graciously up at Dipper for thinking about their safety.

"Dipper, sweetie, we aren't living in fear…" Rosemary assured, "It's just how Oak acts is all. In some way, he too can be overly-precautious for our own protection as well…" Her statement was then followed up with a small scoff, courtesy of Ivy.

"A bit _too_ precautious for our liking, if you ask me…" she half-bitterly remarked softly, eliciting a shush from Sage in return.

"The point is," Rosemary continued without a beat, "you two shouldn't need to be worried for us. I mean, yes, we all can let our curiosity get the better of us, but we all have learned to take more care when venturing out of the village as well."

Sage nodded in agreement. "We do appreciate that Oak does care for our safety, but sometimes he can, like, be a bit overboard, you know?" Mabel and Dipper looked down at their half-eaten meal gravelly.

"We see what you mean…" Dipper muttered, remembering the bow-and-arrow Oak had been carrying around upon their first encounter. Wattle shot the two a small smile of consolation before things can get too somber.

"Just don't let that bloke get to ya guys, okay? We'll handle him should things go sour…" Wattle assured tenderly.

Dipper and Mabel both nodded and smiled thankfully down at the faeries, both proud to know that they all have their back. Rosemary smiled back at the twins in such a sweet, motherly manner before she suddenly remembered that they were all still in the middle of their lunch. She then quickly turned to Ivy, Snapdragon, and Valerian with an inviting grin.

"Well then, would you three like to join us for lunch? It would seem like Wattle's made enough vegetable medley to feed the whole village!" Rosemary offered sweetly. Wattle nodded and smiled brightly.

"Yeah, we've been talkin' for so long, we don't want this food goin' cold!" he chortled. Ivy beamed excitedly.

"I thought you'd never ask!" chortled Ivy as she sat on a small rock next to Sage, "I could smell this stuff even from across the village!" Snapdragon and Valerian both happily agreed as well as they too sat down beside Ivy, ready to enjoy a hearty lunch after training.

Dipper, who then happily resumed munching down on a piece of broccoli, simply smiled down at Wattle. "Wattle, we just gotta say, this meal is beyond superb!" he praised with sincerity, "We haven't had a vegetable medley this good since...well..._ever!_" Mabel nodded so fast that her head felt like it'd pop out of its socket.

"Yeah! It's almost as good as our parent's home-cooking!" she commented. Wattle smiled modestly at the twins.

"Aw, nothin' to it, ya blokes!" he replied appreciatively, "I can't really take all the credit, though. Bluebell was a real big help preparing this meal after all!" Wattle's compliment caused the quiet Bluebell to blush bright red and to give him a tiny, pleased smile in return.

As the picnic was met with more friendly banter, jokes, stories, and chatting between the humans and faeries, none of them knew that their little lunch would wind up having an extra guest very soon...

* * *

Elsewhere, not too far away, as the twins and group of faeries were all busily chatting amongst themselves over their meal, another certain faerie was seen floating around in hopes to find something to eat. He passed by many other faeries that were either busy chatting with friends, doing their chores, playing around, or tending with the local fauna and animals, but neither side really bothered to say "hello" as of yet. This faerie was simply too busy trying to get something to snack on, but nothing seemed to be coming to mind on exactly what he wanted. He didn't feel like having fruit or wheat or syrup today, so maybe something vegetable-related might suit his fancy.

It was then when the scent of Wattle's fresh and scrumptious food hit him like a ton of bricks

"Ooh, that smells real good…" he said to himself, the food's odor enough to actually enough to bring something of a smile upon his stony and chiseled face, "Wattle's out-done himself once again."

With his mind made up, he then fluttered his wings at a quicker rate before he whooshed down the lane, following the heavenly smell wafting around him. Maybe they'd be willing to share some food with him?

* * *

"And so...hee-hee-hee…" Rosemary chortled amidst their meal, telling the twins about a past story that occurred in the village, "that moment when Wattle tried to tame that squirrel, you should've seen him zooming around the village while still grabbing onto its tail! He was like a rocket flying around at high speeds!"

Dipper and Mabel broke into rambunctious laughter at such an amusing story, along with the other faeries as well, though their laughter was more good-hearted than of mockery. Even Wattle couldn't help but chuckle himself, taking that past incident with utmost stride.

"Eh, what can I say? I guess animals aren't my forte...at least you got Sage here to handle the lil' buggers better than I can!" he tittered between chewing his food. Sage nodded and chuckled.

"That's because I've had more experience than you, dude!" she commented playfully before looking up at Mabel and Dipper, "Us faeries here, like, each have a role to play in the village, whether it's tending to our home, the local fauna, and even the wildlife that, like, lives around us!"

The twins ogled with interested smiles. "Is that so?" Dipper grinned. Valerian smiled slowly.

"Yep, Sage and Snapdragon help take care of animals, Bluebell and I tend to the flower gardens, Wattle scavenges and grows food, and Ivy helps collect stuff like pollen, cotton, flower stems, petals, and leaves so we can fashion that into food ingredients or clothing…nothing beats working together as a…*yawn*...loving community after all!" he explained with a sleepy smile on his face.

The twins were impressed by how productive and close-knit of a society these faeries were. However, Dipper looked confused. "Then, what does Rosemary do around here?" Rosemary gave him a tiny grin.

"Well, I guess I'm something of a jack-of-all-trades kind-of faerie here…" she admitted shyly, "I tend with animals, planting flowers and food, collecting items, cleaning around the village...many different things here really! Whatever keeps me busy, you see?" Dipper nodded impressively.

"That seems to be a lot on your plate there, Rosemary…" he said with a mild hint of worry in his voice, but Rosemary simply smiled in reassurance.

"Not really…" she stated, "I always love to work and to help out as much as I can around my home. The other faeries here pretty much see me as something as a natural-born leader…" Dipper smiled softly.

"I'm not surprised!" he chuckled, "Everyone seems to love you here in the village so very much!"

Mabel beamed brightly. "Yeah, you're kinda like their mom because of how kind and understanding you are!" Rosemary's face went more red than her hair color, but her smile never felt her face for even a second.

"Ohh...you two are just too much, you know that?" she cooed softly, touched by their sincerity. Then, Mabel herself had a question to ask.

"So, uh, what does Oak do here anyways?" she asked. Ivy smirked.

"Aside from being a big ol' jerk, he usually tends to be like Rosie here…" she answered, nodding back at Rosemary, "Always doing a little bit of everything…"

Snapdragon nodded. "H-He's also the strongest faerie out of all of us, s-so he also handles construction work, like building or repairing our homes a-and other buildings…" he explained.

"He's essentially our main foreman…" Wattle added. Dipper frowned softly.

"With muscles like those, I can imagine…" he murmured before another question popped in his mind, "So, wait, you all said he's something of your leader as well?" he then asked. Sage shrugged lazily.

"Sorta…" she answered, "Like we said, his grandfather Quercus used to be one of our leaders along with three other elder faeries, and because Oak looked up to him so highly, he thinks that, like, he would be a great leader just like him." Dipper blinked in confusion.

"Leaders?" he asked. Rosemary nodded softly, her face wrinkled with wistful sadness.

"When we first migrated here to America from Europe, we had four ancient elders that led us on our trek for a new home, being Quercus, Ulmus, Salix, and Betula. They all hoped for us to receive a more peaceful home in America rather than Europe, which was why they led us and our ancestors here for a better life…"

Dipper and Mabel stared silently. "A better life…?" Mabel whispered in fright. Wattle nodded gravely, his face consumed with grim sadness.

"Let's just say our old home had a bit of a run-in with some unicorns…that's why we had to jump ship and leave for America..." he muttered, not wanting to explain the full explanation of his answer. Dipper's eyes widened at the mere mention of that certain species.

'_Unicorns…_' he gasped internally, remembering that Journal #1 explained how faeries and unicorns were described as one-sided enemies. Perhaps some magical unicorns back in Europe must've done something bad to the faeries' previous home to warrant them to leave their country, but as not to cause any heartbreak or trouble, he and Mabel didn't press the issue any further by asking why or how.

Ivy, meanwhile, exhaled as she reflected upon these events, remembering one little loophole regarding unicorns in general. "And considering when we found out that Gravity Falls also harbors unicorns here as well, then that plan _surely_ worked well in the end…" she bitterly recalled to herself.

The twins cringed and frowned at the sound of that, remembering Celestabellebethabelle and her cronies fully well. However, the faeries' story seemed to strike a chord within the twins, their hearts broken to bits from hearing such turmoil that the faeries had gone through, even if their explanations sounded vague at best. Dipper and Mabel felt the need to shed a couple of tears upon seeing the faeries look so forlorn and low-spirited, something that seemed foreign to these usually sprightly and sweet creatures.

"W-We're so sorry that had to happen to you, guys…" Dipper quietly said after seconds of sad silence, "We didn't know you and the others went through so much trouble back in your home…" Rosemary wiped away a lone tear of her own and gave Dipper a miniscule, yet appreciate smile.

"It's not your fault, you two…" she assured softly, "I suppose that's just par for the course for the life of a faerie, I guess…" The other faeries solemnly nodded in agreement with her, but Dipper was thinking otherwise.

"B-But, it's not fair! You guys shouldn't be hurting like this!" Dipper tried to reason, "You guys don't deserve to lose your home or your leaders and friends! You guys are the kindest and most innocent creatures we've ever met in the Falls!" Mabel nodded sadly, agreeing with Dipper's statement.

"You all are the sweetest little guys ever and...and…" Mabel added morosely, her tone filled with hurt as she tried to piece together some reassurance of her own, but instead, all she could think of doing was to just give the faeries what they might need.

A warm, comforting hug.

"Ohh...come here…" she sighed sadly, reaching down to gather up all seven of the faeries in her hands as carefully as humanly possible, and then brought them gently up to her torso, letting them embrace her soft sweater in hopes to make them feel comforted in any way.

And luckily, it seemed to be working as the faeries found themselves blissfully sinking into Mabel's green sweater, all soon forgetting to feel sad as they snuggled against Mabel as she gingerly held them in her arms, rocking them back and forth as if they were Mabel's own children.

Dipper smiled fondly at such a loving moment shown before him, but he still felt quite upset for the faeries. If losing a few of their friends due to humans or any other sudden occurrence wasn't enough, they also had to deal with losing their ancestors, their leaders, and even their homes? Plus, also having to come across unicorns on top of that!? That wasn't fair at all to the faerie clan!

But before he was planning to put his two cents into the matter, his thoughts were interrupted by a surprise visitor

"Excuse me."

A familiar, but unexpected voice cut in through the comforting scene, causing the twins and faeries to pause their little moment to see who was apparently joining in right now. Although, judging by who this certain faerie was, the shock and fright etched across their faces was perfectly justified.

"O-Oak, what a n-nice surprise!" Rosemary greeted with a stunned stutter just as Mabel quickly released her embrace and set the faeries free from her grasp.

Sure enough, Oak was seen slowly hovering towards the group with a blank expression on his face. He scanned the area carefully, looking towards the other faeries, the still-fresh meal that Wattle had cooked placed on the rock table, and then up at the nervous and silent humans looming above him.

Oak squinted his eyes up at the twins, but without his sights off of them, he still answered back to Rosemary. "Yes, well, I smelled something of a good meal here and I wondered if I could join...though I didn't assume we're having the humans partake in this as well…" he grumbled softly.

Everybody else's reactions seemed to vary upon hearing that, with expressions ranging from fright (Dipper, Snapdragon, and Bluebell) to uncertainty (Mabel, Sage, Wattle, and Valerian) to annoyance (Ivy). Amongst the group, no one aside from Rosemary bothered to give Oak anything of a smile (although Rosemary's smile seemed more forced and nervous than anything). Oak, meanwhile, didn't seem too deterred from the lack of a warm reception.

The twins practically wished they could turn invisible right now, as not to have Oak leer at them like fresh meat, even with the faeries now protectively fluttering in front of them in case something goes awry.

Rosemary coughed nervously and tried her best to give Oak a friendly smile. "W-Well, we figured why not share some of our food with the humans, then?" she tittered with a stilted smile, "Uh, perchance would _you_ like to j-join us, Oak?"

The rest of the faeries (as well as the twins) winced and ogled with incredulousness at Rosemary, all vastly confused to why on Earth she'd bother to invite Oak to their little get-together like this. They all certainly knew that Rosemary, being the charitable and hospitable friend she was, would never try to act rude or unwelcoming towards anyone, not even someone as brash as Oak.

Oak cleared his throat awkwardly, his sights still locked on the duo of humans sitting before him. As much as he still didn't trust the humans around his home, he _was_ getting hungry and Wattle's meal did smell very good. Looks like he's going to have to brave through this lunch with the humans around, it seems.

"Very well then…" he eventually declared at Rosemary, whom simply clapped her hands and smiled softly.

"Excellent! Maybe this'll be a chance for you to get to know the humans better? You know, to see that not all of them are bad?" she offered innocently. Oak rolled his eyes in response.

'_Unlikely…_' he thought to himself with disdain. Rosemary, seeing how upset he was, still tried to keep things uplifting.

"Trust me, Oak, this will be good for you...you and the twins. You'll get a chance to understand humans better and the twins can now feel comfortable around you. It'll be a great learning experience for you both!" she exclaimed assuringly before she turned back towards the others behind her.

"Am I right, everyone?" she asked kindly, hoping to elicit a positive reply in return.

The rest of the group frowned, all unsure about this whole ordeal. The faeries didn't want Oak's presence to make things uncomfortable for the humans, whom in question were both looking quite frightened and nervous upon having the blunt and gruff faerie nearby them. However, the other faeries didn't want to make things awkward or heated between Oak and themselves, so they had no choice but to say "yes" to Rosemary.

"Y-Yeah, sure…"

"O-Okay, yeah…"

"Sure, man...I guess…"

Even the twins - still feeling on-edge during all of this - decided it best just to follow with Rosemary's idea, lest not to upset anyone, but they only replied with timid nods instead.

Everyone else still tried to sound accepting and assuring about this, but traces of concern and fright were still present in their voices. None of them verbally opposed to this, however, as not to upset Rosemary or arouse suspicion from Oak. Ivy, naturally, was the one who was most upset at the prospect of having a grumpy-guts like Oak hang with them.

'_Dang it, Rosemary, we love you and all, but why do you have to torture us like this!?_' she griped in her mind as Oak quietly nodded at Rosemary and carefully took a seat next to her, grabbing a few vegetables from the plate for his own to eat.

Dipper watched Oak down below with wide, watchful eyes. He trembled uncontrollably for a split second, sweat glistening off his brow and chocolate-colored locks. Mabel, on the other hand, actually did managed to attempt to smile, but even a fun-loving go-getter like her was still nervous to be around Oak as well.

Oak, having just helped himself to a decent-sized portion of celery, onions, and peppers, began to eat and savor Wattle's food, though with the addition of the Pines kids a few feet away from him, he hadn't time to relish in the warm and delicious taste of the meal. Right now, he could only give the twins suspicious looks in-between bites of his meal as he kept his head aimed down towards said meal, causing the twins to feel more uncomfortable by the second.

Rosemary, worried that maybe her idea to try and get Oak and the twins to get along may wind up going off the rails, decided that maybe some conversation will get things going.

"So, uh, Oak…" Rosemary started with a sugary tone of voice, "Perhaps you'd like to tell Dipper and Mabel a little bit about yourself?" Oak gulped down a piece of celery, not really bothering to look away from his food to answer directly at the twins.

"I handle construction and I made sure these faeries don't get squished by humans." Oak replied curtly, "End of story."

Rosemary winced at Oak's short, sharp answer, especially after noticing the twins flinch in response. "Come on, Oak, you can do better than that!' she urged as hopefully as she could, trying to keep the forced smile on her face, "Tell the twins about what you like to do."

"Not get flattened by a human…" came the stoic reply. Rosemary's hopeful smile twisted into an annoyed frown; she was really getting fed up with Oak's sour attitude.

The other faeries looked just as exhausted as Rosemary was, in spite of them all also feeling as nervous as the twins. "Oak, there's no need to be a big ol' grump, mate!" assured Wattle, "Just say 'hello' to these mates and things'll be hunky-dory!"

Oak rolled his eyes and let out a groan, eventually deciding to just go along with this and get it over with. "Okay, fine, then…" he finally sighed, now fully turning and looking straight up at the twins with a tired expression.

"Ugh, hello, Mipper and Dabel…" he greeted boredly, right before Rosemary elbowed him in the stomach due to his mispronunciation, "Ouch!"

"It's _Dipper_ and _Mabel_…" she corrected in a harsh whisper. Oak rubbed his stomach and let out a sigh. He really wished he should've stayed home right now.

"Fine...hello, Dipper and Mabel…" he repeated with using the human's proper names. Wattle smirked lightly and nodded.

"Okay, good, that's a start. Now, then," he instructed, gesturing up at the pair of humans now, "Dipper, Mabel, say 'hello' back." Dipper and Mabel gulped in unison, mustering the courage to give Oak something of a friendly hand wave.

"Uh, h-hello…" uttered Dipper feebly.

"N-Nice to meet ya…" added Mabel afterwards with a stammer. Wattle chuckled both at the humans and his burly faerie leader.

"Heh-heh, see, mates? You're communicating now!" he congratulated with a smile. Oak slumped in annoyance, taking another bite of his food.

"Hoo-rah…" Oak replied in a lazy tone. The twins both didn't respond, only frowning frightfully in return as they continued to silently eat their food.

The rest of the faeries all looked at each other, in hopes to find some way to get Oak and the twins to get to know each other better, but so far, they all seemed to be drawing blanks. Oak wasn't in the mood to fully engage himself with the humans, and the twins in question were too beside themselves with fright to even dare to speak down to Oak. Even poor Rosemary was at a loss on what to do right now.

She noticed her other faerie friends beginning to feel a bit antsy while they tried to enjoy their lunch. Sage and Valerian both looked glum and deathly silent, fiddling about with their food akwardly. Wattle still tried his best to keep a positive smile and aura, but even he began to feel his grin falter from the awkward atmosphere. Ivy could only cast Oak an annoyed and exhausted frown subtle enough for him not to notice.

And lastly, Snapdragon and Bluebell both shivered nervously out of fear of being part of this situation, so much so that they wound up emitting tiny particles of faerie dust from their pastel-colored bodies, with their jittery wings kicking up dust around them. A few specks of dust began freely wafting up to Dipper, managing to get sucked up through his nose. As soon as that happened, Dipper flinched like mad as a massive spike of discomfort occurred inside his nasal passages, granting him only one way to relieve himself from this sudden irritation in his nose.

To sneeze like he'd never sneezed before.

"Ah...ah...ah...AH-_**CHOO!**_"

Dipper let out a loud, echoing sneeze that startled the living daylights out of the other faeries, even including Oak! Luckily, Dipper managed to turn his head away from anyone as not to let them contract any germs, but his sneeze was still loud enough for practically anyone in the village to hear him. Mabel, whom was sitting closest to Dipper, was so shocked by her brother's louder-than-usual sneeze that she accidentally stumbled off of the rock she was sitting on, landing on her back with a thud. Rosemary gasped in horror.

"Oh, my stars, Mabel!" she cried, "Are you okay!?" Mabel let out a soft groan as she quickly got right back up, rubbing her back.

"Yeah, I'm okay…" she assured, sitting back up on her rock seat, "Didn't expect Dipper here to sneeze so loud…"

Dipper hastily wiped away his nose of any remaining residue with a tissue that he'd managed to snag out from his backpack, shaking his head to get his senses back into working order before nervously smiling at the others. "Uh, sorry, guys...guess some faerie dust must've slipped into my nose…"

Snapdragon and Bluebell both frowned apologetically, the dust they have emitted now fully evaporated from the air. "S-Sorry, i-it's our fault, D-Dipper…" confessed Snapdragon, "Us faeries can t-tend to expel too much faerie dust a-at times…"

"I-It's something that c-can't really be helped…" Bluebell squeaked sadly afterwards. Sage exhaled softly, brushing away some excess dust flown onto her dress.

"You're telling me, girl…" she sighed, "That was, like, a gnarly sneeze…"

"Yeah, I nearly felt my heart stop for a sec, mate!" added Wattle. Dipper blushed in embarrassment.

"Y-Yeah...sorry about that, guys…" he sighed. Oak then suddenly huffed to himself, leering towards Snapdragon and Bluebell seriously.

"Just be careful when you two starting emitting that stuff. Our faerie dust is not something that should be spread around all willy-nilly. Somebody could pick up the scent and track us down here at our home, or even try to keep some of the dust for themselves." he stated warningly, leaving only both Bluebell and Snapdragon to feel quite sorry for themselves.

"Sorry, Oak…" they sadly replied, their heads and wings limping downwards in shame. However, Oak's words seemed to have piqued Dipper's curiosity.

"W-Wait...why would anyone else want your faerie dust?" he asked in worry. Oak sighed as he picked around with his food.

"Our faerie dust is versatile stuff, kid…" he grunted importantly, "It can be used for many uses: potions, food, elixirs, even for lethal narcotics as well! On the off chance somebody with an evil or sketchy background gets their hands on a faerie to drain it of any of its dust, they can use that stuff to whatever they like. Sell it on the black market for riches, create dangerous potions with it, use it as a toxin if they wanted…"

The twins gasped in surprise at that. They knew faerie dust must be powerful stuff when it was all said and done, but they hadn't known that there was such a high market for said dust. Just then, something crossed Mabel's mind, in regards to when she last handled faerie dust last summer in the Falls.

"But...doesn't this stuff act as a sleeping potion against unicorns though?" she asked softly through past experience. Oak managed to give her an affirmative nod.

"Yes, which is why the faeries and the unicorns have held a grudge against one another for so long." he gravely responded, "Those horned freaks have been a thorn in our side back in our old home, and now, to find out there's other unicorns here in the Falls? Pssh, well, that's just perfect! As if we need to deal with anymore creatures to hunt us down…"

Upon hearing that, the twins froze in utter surprise at that last remark. For the longest time, they thought the only things faeries had to deal with were unicorns and humans! Who else would try and capture or hurt these faeries?

"What!? Who else would want to hunt you guys down!? You are all just so innocent and sweet!" Mabel asked in worry. Oak scoffed softly.

"Bounty hunters, warlocks, collectors, seedy merchants...whoever decides to try and sell us or our faerie dust for profit, really…innocence doesn't really count for anything in this hard-edged world..." he explained gruffly. Dipper raised an eyebrow in confusion; that didn't sound like something he read in Ford's Journal.

"That's funny...according to the 'Journal', it says that you faeries don't really have many enemies around here aside from just unicorns…" he pondered before a loud scoff snapped Dipper out of his thoughts.

"Well, apparently, the guy who wrote your 'Journal' must not know that much about faeries then, huh? Pssh, but then again, not all humans know about how we truly feel anyways..." he grumbled self-righteously.

Oak's comment certainly succeeded in irking Dipper quite a bit; he disliked it very much when people talk down to his family members and friends like that, and as far as Dipper knew Grunkle Ford was one of the most smartest and innovative individuals he knew. His face morphed into that of an unamused frown, but for the sake of not making a scene, he just civilly stayed quiet in the end.

His sister Mabel, on the other hand, was more vocal regarding Oak's snide remark.

"Hey, our Grunkle Ford knows about _everything_, you big bully!" Mabel snapped defensively, "He's written so many mysterious things in these Journals and you better-_MMPH!_"

A hand suddenly and hastily placed over her mouth was enough to quiet Mabel's rant just before she was ready to jump out of her seat in annoyance, thanks to the quick-thinking Dipper as he glanced nervously down at the unamused Oak below them. Dipper let out a fearful chuckle, his cheeks blushing in embarrassment.

"Uh, heh-heh, s-sorry about my s-sister here...she can get a _smidge_ t-too excited about s-stuff is all!" Dipper stammered, trying his best to cover his sister's tracks in order to let her simmer down. Mabel huffed indignantly with her mouth still clamped shut by Dipper's open palm before she gently removed out over her lips.

"But, Dipper!" she quietly tried to defend her actions, "He insulted Grunkle Ford! We can't take that sitting down! It isn't nice!" Dipper winced and exhaled in defeat.

"I understand, Mabel, and I totally agree with you." he reasoned with an equally-soft octave, "But, we can't arouse any trouble between us and Oak, in case he tries to cause trouble with us while he still distrusts humans! Just...try and let it go for now, please? For me, sis?" he then pleaded softly towards her, a sad look on his face.

Mabel gazed into his eyes forlornly. Part of her was still upset that Oak would insult one of her beloved family members like that, intentionally or not, but still, she didn't want to upset Dipper in the process as well. So, for the sake of keeping things copacetic, she settled down back in her seat and did her best to calm her frayed nerves, though with a hurt frown spread across her face.

Soon, after an episode like that the group all found it best to simply continue on with their meal, not bringing up anymore touchy subjects that may arise conflict between the twins and the faeries, namely Oak.

Everything was more quiet and less comfortable now since Oak had arrived. The twins kept their sights away from Oak, and Oak tried to do what Rosemary and be as loose as he can, but it proved to be useless as the twins still found his presence unnerving to them. The other faeries were just as nervous as the twins, and they weren't sure of what to say or how to react, so all that was left of them was to simply just eat and pray things wouldn't go more out of hand then it did already.

As of now, there had been no more plans or attempts of coaxing Oak and the twins to try and get them all closer as friends.

Rosemary, meanwhile, also tried her best to keep a strong and positive atitude throughout all this, but after witnessing a scene like that happen before her, she found it quite hard to stay positive as she simply ate her lunch in silence. Somehow, she knew she'd wind up having to have a lecture with Oak at some point today.

It wasn't too long until most of the vegetable medley had been eaten up, only leaving scraplets of half-eaten veggies onto the plate after everyone has had their fair share of food, leaving them all full and satisfied.

***BZZT!*** ***BZZT!*** ***BZZT!***

Just then, a soft buzzing noise could be heard in the area, just barely faint enough to still be heard amongst the group. Wattle seemed to be distracted from his food by the odd sound and began turning his head in all directions to find out where it was coming from, but he seemed to be spotting nothing instead. Rosemary noticed his friend's bafflement.

"Everything okay, Wattle?" Rosemary asked after swallowing a piece of onion in her mouth.

"I'm hearing some sort of buzzin' sound here, but I dunno what the heck it is...I don't see any bees or flies here…" he explained, still looking around for the source of the noise. Dipper and Mabel both raised an eyebrow at Wattle, confused about what he was talking until then, the noise was carried off to them.

Luckily, it didn't take long for Dipper to know what exactly that buzzing noise was coming from. "Oh, wait now, I think that's my phone ringing!" he exclaimed, putting down his fork and now quickly grabbing his nearby backpack, shuffling about inside for his phone.

Wattle gulped down the last bits of his meal and tilted his head, an odd look wrinkled on his face. "The bloke carried a whole telephone with him during this trip?" he asked curiously. Oak, looking just as baffled, huffed unimpressively.

"I knew humans were strange beings…" he muttered softly to nobody in particular. Valerian smiled reassuringly.

"I'm sure it was for a good reason..." he countered as logically as he can be, "They've been searching around for our…*yawn*...home for nearly all day so it makes sense to bring along a telephone in case somebody calls them while-"

"Aha! Found it!"

The faeries turned their utmost attention back to Dipper just as he managed to retrieve his phone in his bag. However, much to the confusion and surprise to the faeries (sans Rosemary and Sage), the phone in question looked much more different than how they originally expected.

This phone was smaller, flat, square-shaped, had a glass screen on it, and had a plain-colored case covering the device for protection. The faeries leered at the object with both awe and utter perplexity. Seconds ticked silently by until one of them bothered to say anything.

"What on God's green Earth is that thing!?" Oak cried in shock, but he hadn't gained an answer as Dipper quickly turned on the device and winced softly to see who exactly was calling him.

"Oh, crud…" he sighed softly. Mabel gazed at her brother with concern.

"Everything okay, Dip?" she asked. Dipper turned back to her.

"It's Grunkle Stan…" he sighed, looking at the Caller ID on his phone, "I better answer this quickly. Keep the faeries company until I get back, okay, Mabes?" he asked softly. Mabel nodded and smiled.

"Sure thing, bro-bro!" she chirped. Dipper smiled in gratitude and stood back up, walking a few feet away from the group to answer his call in peace. Just as Dipper was of earshot, the faeries, stunned and beyond confused, looked up to Mabel with weird looks on their faces.

"What was that kid playing at!? That ain't a phone!" Ivy cried out in astonishment. Mabel giggled her most giddiest giggle and gave the faeries a cheerful smile.

"Oh, yes, that was!" she correctly mused, now scrambling into her own backpack to fetch her own smartphone. She soon found it in no time and happily brought it out for the faeries to see. Naturally, her phone was much more vibrantly-colored and sparkly in contrast to her brother's plain-looking phone.

"Ta-da!" Mabel rang out happily. The other faeries gazed in awe at this futuristic-looking contraption; they've never seen something so modern before. Even Oak was somewhat intrigued by this strange device, though he'd never admit to finding interest in a human-made gadget though.

Ivy, meanwhile, still seemed to have her doubts. "I still don't think that thingy's meant to be a phone…" she stated disbelievingly. Wattle nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, kinda looks like a paperweight to me…" he stated. Bluebell shivered with both nervousness and engrossment.

"It's not going to h-hurt us, is it?" she whispered shyly. Mabel shook her head.

"Of course not!" she assured, "This is just what most phones are like nowadays, except they can fit in your pocket now!" The faeries, while still impressed with such an innovative little machine, still had their doubts.

"I dunno...l-last we were told, phones had wires and dials a-and were hooked inside of houses and stuff…" explained Snapdragon, "That thing looks n-nothing like a normal phone." Sage and Rosemary, whom were both unfazed by this, simply sat back in their seats and chuckled at their friends' reactions.

"Actually, it technically is, dudes…" Sage defended with a small smirk, "Mabel said that that kind of phone is basically a modern upgrade of the telephone, but like, a mobile version as well, man…"

Rosemary smiled and nodded in agreement. "Indeed!" she chirped, "Such a nifty little device, too! She showed us it while she, Sage, Dipper, and I were on our little tour of the village." Mabel nodded excitedly.

"And you can do so many things with it, too!" stated Mabel as she turned on her phone to her main screen, showcasing a multitude of apps on it, "You can call and text friends, play games on it, go on social media, watch videos, and even date people on these lil' apps on it, too!"

The faeries gasped and murmured to each other about all this; a telephone that can basically do anything? That just seemed impossible to think about, but still, as the saying goes, "times are a'changing". Oak, in spite of his mild interest, scoffed at such an idea of something as simple as a phone being so advanced for its kind.

"Games? Date people? What kind of witchcraft is this!?" he exclaimed dubiously. Mabel guffawed.

"Ha-ha-ha! It's no witchcraft! It's technology!" she replied, "Just the times moving forward and all that junk!" Just then, an idea swam in her head, causing her to smile wider than ever!

"Ooh, you know what this means!?" she sang out excitedly. The faeries looked at each other, unsure of what Mabel was meaning by until she then unexpected scooped them all in her arms while fiddling around on her phone for one of her most favorite features.

The camera app.

"SURPRISE SELFIE!"

***SNAP!*** ***FLASH!***

"Oh!"

"Gah!"

"Oof, my eyes!"

"Ah, geez!"

Before they knew it, the faeries found themselves temporarily blinded by a flash of white light from Mabel's phone, causing them all to feel dizzy and light-headed, their pupils all shrunken to the size of chickpeas. As Mabel gently let them go from her arms, they all fluttered back onto safer grounds, trying to shake away the fuzzies and blurriness from their eyes as Mabel giddily began searching for the selfie photo in her smartphone's gallery.

"Whoo-hoo!" gasped Wattle, his big eyes spinning like mad, "That was a big flash there, mate!"

Ivy furiously rubbed at her own eyes as to hopefully get rid of any floaters and flashes. "Tell me about it! I thought I nearly went blind!" Oak growled softly, trying to get his mind cleared as soon as possible.

"What'd I tell ya? Witchcraft…" he muttered negatively. Mabel, now seeing the dizzy reactions of her faerie friends, smiled sheepishly.

"Eh-heh...sorry, guys. Must've accidentally had the flash on by mistake…" she replied with a shy chuckle before she then presented her phone's screen back at the faeries. "But, hey, check this out!"

The faeries all shut their eyes and recoiled a bit, as if to expect another flash of light to nearly blind them again. But when there was no sign of a flash, they all bravely opened their eyes once more only to have their eyes bulge out in wonder upon what they saw on Mabel's phone.

"It's a photo of all of us!" Bluebell squeaked out in amazement.

Indeed, shown proudly on Mabel's smartphone was a freshly-snapped selfie picture of herself and all her faerie friends all together. Granted, it wasn't totally perfect due to the faeries' surprised and staggered faces shown in the picture, in contrast to Mabel's sunny and brace-filled smile, but to Mabel herself, it looked like a masterpiece!

The faeries took a longer gander at their photo and all clamored in amazement.

"Dude, it's like looking in a mirror!" awed Sage.

"Rosemary's right! This _is_ a nifty device!" commented Wattle.

"Did I always have that pimple on m-my nose?" asked Snapdragon worriedly at his picture. Rosemary nodded.

"Indeed, such a marvellous little thing!" she said, now giving Oak a knowing grin, "Not bad for something made by humans, eh, Oak?" Oak rolled his eyes and crossed his arms as to pretend he didn't care, though he secretly still was mildly impressed.

As the faeries kept yapping on about their impromptu selfie, Mabel beamed sweetly down at them, glad to share such a nice moment with her new, small-in-size friends. '_I'm totally gonna save this picture in my phone forever…_' she vowed in her mind.

But while the faeries kept admiring their group photo, Dipper had arrived back, having finished his phone call with Grunkle Stan. Mabel looked back towards him with worry.

"Everything okay, bro?" she asked. Dipper nodded and gave her a small smile.

"Yeah, Stan's just wondering when we were ready to head back home. I said we'd be heading back around two or three more hours from now…" he explained. Mabel gave him a thumbs-up, but the other faeries (barring Oak, of course) seemed downtrodden at this news.

"You'll b-be leaving us?" Bluebell asked sadly, her eyes beginning to well with tears. Sage sighed softly.

"I'm afraid they'll have to, Bluebell…" she confirmed just as glumly, though she understood the situation better than Bluebell did. She fluttered up to her to give her a warm side hug, "Big dudes gotta get back home at some point today…especially before it gets real dark, man..."

Oak scoffed to himself, his expression still sour as he gazed upon the sad-looking faerie group. "Pssh, good riddance…" he grumbled extra softly to himself so nobody can hear.

Rosemary noticed how upset her friends were looking, and even though she was somewhat sad herself at the news, she still hoped to find the positive side throughout all this and wanted the others to see that as well.

"Don't worry, everyone!" she rallied hopefully, "They said they still have some more time to mill around here before they have to leave later, so let's just let them have some more fun until dusk falls then! Besides, if all goes well, they can come back to the village another day if they like!"

The twins and the faeries beamed in rapturous excitement at this prospect! The fact that their new humans still being able to hang with them a little bit longer brought such joy and cheer into their hearts.

Oak, however, didn't share their feelings.

"WHAT!?" he yelped out, his eyes boggling out in horror and shock. But his protest was drowned out by cheers and hollars so loud that they practically echoed around the village, causing many other faeries in the area to look in confusion at the scene.

The faeries began soaring and twirling around the twins with glee, kicking up fresh faerie dust in their wake as the twins giggled in amusement at the little creatures' excitement. "That means we get to hang out for a little while longer!" whooped Wattle.

"We got so much more stuff to show you both!" exclaimed Ivy. Oak spluttered in disbelief as he watched the faeries fly around like happy houseflies.

"Hey, wait, don't _I _have a say in this!?" he demanded, but like before, nobody bothered to answer back to him as Snapdragon piped up over the buff faeries' statement.

"Rosemary, can Dipper come with us to the watermill? We have to show him something beautiful!" he begged with easily the biggest smile he'd ever made. Rosemary giggled amusingly.

"I don't see why not! That is, if Dipper's okay with it?" she replied, looking up to the easily-nervous boy kindly. Dipper smiled gently and nodded.

"Uh, sure thing!" he answered, prompting Snapdragon, Ivy, and Valerian to squeal and laugh happily, all now grabbing Dipper's right arm to drag him towards the watermill. Dipper gasped from being tugged at so hardly, but couldn't help but join in on their laughter as the three faeries enthusiastically pulled him away and out from the eating area.

"Oh, you're gonna love what we're gonna show ya, Dipper!" cheered Ivy with vigor.

Oak growled at the three faeries dragging away Dipper and shook a fist at them. "Hey, hey, watch where you going! Make sure that human doesn't step on something...or someone, you hear!?" he barked out sternly as Dipper and the three faeries were soon out of sight.

Mabel giggled delightfully at seeing Dipper get whisked away by his new friends, not even feeling upset at being left behind. But before she could do anything else, a tiny voice rang up directly at her.

"Uh, Miss Mabel?"

Mabel raised an eyebrow and looked down at her feet to see shy, little Bluebell gently tugging at one of her knee socks to get her attention. She smiled down sweetly at the faeries, kneeling down to get a closer look at her.

"Heya, Bluebell! What's up?" she chirped, Bluebell timidly had her head pointed down, but with her eyes still looking up at Mabel. She hemmed and hawed gently, arms crossing behind her back.

"Uh, Miss Mabel, i-if it's not too much...could I...uh...hang with you for a little bit...i-if that's okay with you?" she proposed in the softest voice ever made. Mabel beamed warmly.

"Why, of course, you can!" she cheered welcomingly, "I always love hanging out with new friends! What do ya wanna do?"

Bluebell's blushing face managed to make something of a tiny, sweet, though timid smile nonetheless as she flew up at Mabel and gently grabbed Mabel by her left hand. "I know of something in the village that you'd might like to do, I-I'll show you!" Bluebell offered with a hushed, yet excited voice.

Mabel giggled at the faerie's glee. "Well, lead the way!" she encouraged, and that's what Bluebell did as she gingerly led Mabel away from their perch and towards one section of the faerie village, leaving only Rosemary, Sage, Oak, and Wattle behind in the picnic area.

Wattle and Sage both chuckled at how enthused Bluebell was just a moment ago before looking up at the mostly-finished meal up on the rock. "Well, we'd better clean up this mess then…" deduced Wattle with a happy sigh as he turned back to Sage, "C'mon, shiela, let's pack up some of this stuff and see if some of the animals might want some of these…"

Sage nodded and smiled. "Sure thing, man…" she agreed as she and Wattle began gathering every bit of leftover vegetables to feed to the local animals later. As they were doing this, Oak, feeling rather frustrated about being ignored multiple times, could only grumble softly to himself as he turned towards Rosemary with an annoyed frown.

"I'm guessing this is also part of your plan, Rosemary?" he asked exhaustively. Rosemary gave Oak a sly, smug grin, as well as an innocent shrug.

"Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't…" she mused, "Not my fault out friends can be over-eager whenever we have guests here…"

Oak rolled his eyes. "Rosemary, we _never_ have guests here." he reminded, "We concealed ourselves away for a reason, you know?" Rosemary crossed her arms and flashed a winning smile at him.

"Well, perchance the twins' visit here may prove to you that we should have guests here more often?" she considered with a sweet voice. Oak grimaced and exhaled in exhaustion.

"I still don't like the fact that we got humans scampering around our village. It'll be like a bull in a china shop with those two stomping around here!" Oak huffed softly. Rosemary shook her head and smiled.

"Well, _you_ don't know that!" she replied knowingly, "Now, come on, Oak...there's no need to be a stick-in-the mud! The twins promised they'll be as careful as can be, and so far, nothing bad has happened yet, right?" Oak snorted crossly, especially after seeing Rosemary shoot him a playful, eyebrow-wiggling expression.

"Feh, the day's not over yet, remember? They might still wind up stepping on something...or someone, God forbid…" Oak reminded once again. "Also, I hope you weren't serious about those two ankle-biters coming back again!?"

Rosemary's expression turned into one that radiated pure seriousness. "Of course I do...the other faeries and I trust these two humans to not cause any trouble to us, so why wouldn't we have those two back in our home again? They're both just the sweetest pair of kids I've ever met!" Oak rubbed the temples on his head, letting out a defeated groan.

"I'm telling you, Rosemary, all the abundance of curiosity and trust that all of you faeries carry will bite us in the rear one day…" Oak gravely stated, "I took on a role as this clan's leader to try and keep you all safe from humans, not so you all can galavant off like nothing bad can happen!" Rosemary waved off Oak's reminder with a hearty laugh.

"Oh, please, Oak...you know very well we don't deal with any of that matriarch / patriarch nonsense here anymore! It'll just lead to hostilities, conflicts, and disagreements...and personally, us faeries should be able to express themselves freely as Gaea intended..." Oak gave Rosemary such a strange look upon hearing that.

"It's not about being hostile or anything like that!" Oak announced slowly enough for Rosemary to understand, "It's making sure you lot don't try and kill yourselves by wandering outside our home. I'm trying to protect you all here, especially since we've lost our four elders!"

Rosemary nodded, but still stayed firm. "And I appreciate you looking out for us, Oak, I really do. But, sometimes you just have to learn to let loose and open your mind a bit more..." she advised gently with a thin smile.

Oak simply stared at Rosemary as if she'd grew two more heads. The day he'd accept humans as a whole would be the day Hell froze over and seeing Rosemary before him act so sly and rebellious really brought him over the edge. He practically wasn't sure how else to react or what to say. But luckily, he didn't need to say anything else as Rosemary gently grabbed his hand, causing him to look into her big, shining, hazel-colored eyes.

"Now, Oak, I understand that you miss your grandfather Quercus. We all do and we also miss Salix, Betula, and Ulmus as well. And I know you want to make sure we stay safe, but hiding from humans until the end of time isn't going to help anything. Quercus was a great leader, and I have no doubt you can be too, but however, you need to learn to be more accepting towards others. Quercus and the others accepted everyone for who they were and they've never held any grudges towards anyone, whether they were faeries or humans…"

Oak listened intently to Rosemary's words as carefully as he could, his dour expressions softening a bit upon mention of his long-lost grandfather. He stood there silent and glum as Rosemary continued on.

"The only reason I feel that we don't need a leader anymore is because the other faeries should learn to think and fend for themselves...to be more independent. So far, we haven't had a bad human encounter happen to us since Bluebell ran into that one human last summer, and so far, things here have been going smoothly. There's been no sign of any unicorns, hunters, or even monsters around our home in a long, long time. I understand you want to be protected, Oak, but sometimes, you can be a bit too overboard when doing so. We don't need to resort to archery or violence to protect ourselves, you know..." concluded Rosemary in a levelled, yet sorry-sounding tone before adding one last note in the end.

"I only want the humans to have a fun time here...not to feel intimidated by you...hopefully soon, you'll realize that these humans are here to befriends us...not hurt us…"

And with all of that said and done, she was ready to leave Oak with his own thoughts to attend to her own business while the twins were off having fun. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have some begonias to water in the south gardens..."

Rosemary then lifted her nose in the air and promptly fluttered past Oak on her way towards the village, but not before letting the brash faerie in on one final little detail.

"Oh, and Oak, dearie?" she asked, "If you don't mind, I expect you to apologize to both Dipper and Mabel for inadvertently insulting their Grunkle like that before they have to leave today." And with that, thinking that she has bested Oak for now, she left the picnic area to tend to her own affairs, now leaving the maize-colored all alone at the moment.

Oak stayed quiet and was beside himself with a feeling that he couldn't quite describe himself.

Grief? Sure. Annoyance? Possibly. Regret? Maybe.

All these emotions were building up and were mixed around inside of Oak like somebody making a martini. Overall, Oak didn't know how to react to what had just occurred between him and Rosemary. Sure, it figured she'd still want the human to continue hanging around their home, but even so, Oak still was adamant about the Pines twins being around him. They were so tall and heavy-footed, while he himself was just a little faerie, no taller than a mere soda can, even with the fact he was quite strong for his size.

Plus, there was the subject about his grandfather, Quercus. Oak had always looked up to this faerie with great admiration for as long as he had lived. Quercus was as strong of will as he was of heart. The same could be said for the other faerie elders, Salix, Betula, and Ulmus, and while Oak certainly shown the other three co-leaders with as much genuine respect, Quercus was what Oak aspired to be back when he was young: a great leader that helps to protect all of his fellow faeries from any opposing trouble.

But the difference between Oak and his grandfather was that Quercus trusted humans, even going as far as to have a strong fascination with the species.

Oak, meanwhile, does not share that feeling at all.

Admittedly, Oak still wasn't sure if he could still trust any humans at this point...let alone these humans roaming about the village. There _may_ still be a possibility where he could be swayed into thinking that _maybe_ the twins could be innocent enough, but regardless, the chance of this pair of humans coming back to their home again after today really didn't sit well with him at all!

Heck, he's barely hanging on now as we speak!

But still, Oak didn't want to wind up coming across Rosemary's wrath at the same time, so now, all he could think of doing was to just get some much-needed rest after nearly a whole day of fretting and trying to keep things in the village running like clockwork.

"It would seem like I might have a lot to think about…" he sighed out to nobody in particular, the only response that he got was the soft whistling of the summer winds whooshing through the trees above. With nothing else to do for now, Oak decided it best to head back to his home, the idea of a nap sounding like wondrous in his book right now.

Today was surely brewing to be rather eventful for Oak, and it seemed like it wouldn't be ending anytime soon…

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

**Another day, another chapter! And as usual, another set of factoids regarding this chapter!**

**-As revealed, the faeries are now shown to have had past leaders, with four of them named and revealed to have names (all Latin names for different tree species to keep with the theme of having the faeries named after plant life), i.e. Quercus (for 'oak", hence the name change I've made from Sequoia), Betula (for "birch"), Salix (for "willow"), and lastly, Ulmus (for "elm"). Out of the bunch here, Quercus will be more pronounced on terms of Oak's personality and goal, with Oak in general aspiring to be a great leader like Quercus, though with having the faeries only seeing him as bossy and brash, it'll be quite a challenge for him to live up to his grandfather's legacy. The exact fates that befall these elders, including Quercus, shall be revealed in a later chapter.**

**-As you can see, the faeries are given a bit of backstory as to why they've moved to the U.S.A. from their old home in Europe, due to some as-of-yet unrevealed events involving unicorns. More on that will be shown in later chapters, but I still wanted to give you guys a little taste as to why exactly the faeries are here in Gravity Falls in the first place.**

**-I had hoped to showcase more of Oak and Rosemary's relationship, whereas Oak believes that the faeries should still have a leader to guide them away from danger (though with a more strict and stern outlook) and where Rosemary thinks that the faeries deserve to be free-thinking and free-spirited instead (even though even she can agree the faeries can be too curious to a fault). Basically, Rosemary's hoping to show the good side about humans to Oak through the means of Dipper and Mabel's presence...although Oak still doesn't seem convinced yet.**

**Next chapter's gonna be in up in July at some point, where we will see Mabel and Bluebell share a little talk with each other that'll regard one glaring issue b/w them on a certain topic involving Bluebell's past occurrence with a certain shady shyster. Anywho, thanks for reading and supporting the story so far and I'll see you all in Chapter Six, "Mabel's Confidant"!**

**~Thunderbyrd**


	6. UPDATE: Current Status of the Story

**Hello, everyone! Thunderbyrd here with a rather important update on terms of this story, as well as a few other related topics.**

**Suffice to say, my fanfic-writing schedule has been thrown off a bit for the past two months. In-between dealing with my job at my local casino, my home life, my social life with friends and family, and other minor things getting in the way, I wasn't able to pump out more material as I had hoped, not just for this story, but for others as well. Not only was this story still in the works, but I also have several other Gravity Falls stories due for release soon. Some story ideas that I had were now pushed to sometime next year, and soon enough, I realized that progress on "The Faeries of the Falls" was going to take a little while longer than I thought.**

**Admittedly, I hadn't thought about making this story longer than it should have been. In my head, I was simply hoping to make something of a cutesy story, as my own way of doing a bit of world-building in the Gravity Falls universe, hence why I wanted to give the faeries some backstory and personality. As of now, I have at least eight or nine more chapters planned for this story, with an antagonist due to show at some point as well. I had hopes to finish this story in fully completion before 2019 ends, but as it turns out, that may not be the case.**

**It also pains me dearly to say that this story **_**may**_ **wind up having to go on a slight hiatus for a bit, until I can catch myself up with my other fanfiction work.**

**Just to be clear, "Faeries of the Falls" IS NOT and WILL NOT be cancelled. I promised to myself since I made this account that if I was going to finish a story, then I will gosh-darn make sure I'll finish it, regardless of how long it will take! However, because of the burnout I had from being overworked while handling this story, a multi-chapter OK K.O. story at the same time, an upcoming story based upon the new Disney show Amphibia (which is a fantastic show, btw), and a few other minor stories in general at the same time, I felt I needed to pace myself for a little while just so I don't crash and burn entirely.**

**On the lighter side of news, I'll be putting more focus on more planned Gravity Falls stories in the meantime. The remainder of 2019 and the upcoming year of 2020 are going to ensure that my slew of Gravity Falls fics will still flow through. These stories are all one-shots, so at least progress on these stories won't take as long as "The Faeries of the Falls" is. Some of these new GF stories are indeed Wendip stories, but some are also general stories that take place in my own little headcanon series as well, some being stories that will feature Pacifica (first time I'll be writing for her, too!) and another shall be a story tying in with one of my previous and more ambitious GF stories, "Saudade".**

**I'm dreadfully sorry to break this news to you all, especially to any of those who favorited, are following, and to those who are simply reading or liking the story so far. I promise I'll continue working on this story as much as I can once I manage to get more free time.**

**Expect Chapter Six of "Faeries of the Falls" sometime at the end of this month, and then after that, the hiatus will most likely be in play. I'll post any updates regarding the story's status on my main profile, so keep an eye out for that soon. Until then, thanks for reading and I hope you all understand. Peace and love, everyone! :)**

**~Thunderbyrd**


	7. Chapter 6: Mabel's Confidant

**Finally back with another chapter, and this time, Mabel takes the center stage with her new faerie friend, Bluebell! Admittedly, this chapter is much shorter than the others, but that doesn't mean it's not important as we get to see Mabel bringing up some lingering guilt that involves herself, Grunkle Stan, and Bluebell from last summer, just to get something off her chest.**

**What kind of news would this specifically be? And, will Bluebell take it lightly in the end? Let's find out! ;)**

**Gravity Falls is owned by Alex Hirsch and Disney (I do not own any of its characters nor its properties. This is purely a non-profit fanfic made for fun).**

* * *

**THE FAERIES OF THE FALLS**

**CHAPTER SIX: MABEL'S CONFIDANT**

Mabel felt like she was in Heaven right now.

After sharing a little lunch with Dipper and some other of her faerie friends, Bluebell had excitedly led Mabel away from the village's outdoor eating area to show her something that she might enjoy in another part of the village, and to say that Mabel was enjoying herself immensely right now would be considered the biggest understatement of the century.

"Bluebell, you guys never mentioned you had someone in the village who could braid hair!" Mabel squealed, showing her brace-filled teeth through her biggest, giddiest smile ever made.

Indeed, Mabel was seen sitting on a tree stump, with Bluebell patiently resting on her right knee with a small, amused smile of her own as a male faerie was busily doing his best to braid the human's dark brown and flowing hair. The faerie was skinny and was, by far, shown to be the most eloquently-dressed faerie out of the rest of the village. He had glistening alabaster white hair styled up into a quiff that shone like pure silver, striking golden eyes, heavily-pronounced eyelashes, and a pale skin tone of alice blue.

The faerie's wardrobe also appeared to be more...eccentric than how the usual faeries dress up. This faerie still wore a cream-colored, Roman-styled robe, but unlike the rest of the faeries wearing their similar Greco-Roman-era clothes, the robe that this faerie wore had bright, shining sequins on it that shone brightly in the sunlight, like a hundred twinkling stars all balled into one.

On top of that, he wore a cape that was easily larger than his own body, made up of red leaves that were covered in shiny sequins, making the faerie seem more shinier than normal. It draped heavily over his shoulders, dangling down like a big, shiny curtain.

Clearly, this faerie had a flair for both fashion and for the dramatic.

Bluebell giggled sweetly. "Trust me, M-Mabel," she assured softly with a tiny stutter, "Fleur-de-lis is an e-expert when it comes to cosmetics." The faeries hairdresser in question couldn't help but chuckle confidently as he continued weaved Mabel's hair into his own style.

"Indeed, I am, dearz!" the faerie proudly proclaimed with a jovial-sounding French accent, "Not everyone at zhis village can mold hair into pure mazterpiecez like _moi!_"

Bluebell chuckled softly, knowing how this particular faerie can tend to be a bit boastful with his handiwork. "Well, w-we're glad you were able to agree to g-give Mabel a new hairstyle, Fluer!" she remarked softly, with Mabel giving the sparkly faerie a massive smile.

"Hee-hee, yeah, thank you, Mr. 'Floor-da-liz'!" Mabel tittered, unintentionally mispronouncing the faerie hair stylist's name. The hair-styling faerie could only chuckle warmly back at the human, a wide smile sprawled across his face.

"It'z 'Fleur-de-lis', my dear…" the faerie corrected, "And it'z my pleazure, Mizz Mabel and Mizz Bluebell! I've alwayz dreamt of tending to a human'z hair, and to finally have my dream come true today...oh, it'z _magnifique!_"

Mabel giggled in delight at Fleur-de-lis' boisterous and bubbly mannerisms. From what Bluebell had told her, Fleur was the village's most talented hairdresser, and on terms of personality, was certainly one of the most liveliest and vivacious members of the faerie clan. On top of that, he was also quite fashionable, with a knack for crafting simple things like leaves, petals, and other bits of foliage to create such wonderful-looking clothes.

In fact, Fleur-de-lis was solely responsible for creating each article of clothing that the rest of the faerie village were currently wearing!

Bluebell, contently sitting by the sidelines watching Mabel get her hair done, simply giggled daintily in amusement to see how enraptured Mabel was at the moment. "Tee-hee, I've never seen a human look so excited to have her own hair done…" she commented with interest. Mabel beamed with limitless mirth.

"Why not? It's one of the most funnest things I love to do!" she exclaimed, until she suddenly found her smile waver a bit.

"I just hope it's not too much of a hassle, though, Mr. Fleur…" she then admitted with a shy smile, "My hair _can_ be a bit too thick…" Fleur-de-lis waved off Mabel's concerns with a warm smile.

"Oh, it'z no trouble, _mon ami!_" chortled Fleur-de-lis, "I'm alwayz up for a challenge, and thiz shouldn't be too hard of a task! Though, it may take a bit longer zhen I thought...I've never handled zhis much hair before…" he then admitted, holding up a chunk of brown hair in one hand and a comb in the other.

Mabel smiled sweetly as Fluer-de-lis continued tending to her hair. "Take all the time you need, Fleur!" she chirped kindly, "I ain't in no rush!" Fleur smiled appreciatively with a nod, currently trying to keep Mabel's voluminous hair under control.

"Ah, _merci_, Mizz Mabel!" he crooned in gratitude, "Just be zure to ztay ztill now!" Mabel giggled, trying her very best to keep her excitement in check.

"Okay, but no promises!" she sang out.

A good ten minutes ticked by as Fleur-de-lis continued to weave Mabel's hair as accurately and as nicely as he could, in spite of his small stature. He buzzed all around the giggly girl's head, gently pulling and twisting her hair this way and that, until soon enough, he had finished his work at last!

Fleur and Bluebell stood aside to gaze at the former's handiwork in awe and satisfaction. Fleur-de-lis kissed his hand and smiled broadly. "_Parfait!_" he praised, "It iz done!" Mabel squealed in his seat, excited to see how her new hairdo looked.

"Ooh-ooh-ooh! Lemme-see-lemme-see-lemme-see!" she gasped, pumping his fists enthusiastically. Fleur chuckled at the girl's rising glee as he fluttered close by to a nearby reflecting pool close by the group, gesturing Mabel to follow him.

"Zee for yourzelf, my dear!" he coaxed. Mabel hopped out of her seat to scooch over to the pond, in order to use the pond as something of a mirror.

When Mabel took one look at herself inside of the pool's reflection, she gasped in pure delight upon what she saw!

Her hair was styled in a long, lovely French braid, her smooth, tied-down brown hair sweeping down to her waist. The knotted-up hair swayed about freely and without a care, like a dangling keychain. Additionally, as if to make her hair stand out even more, multiple white posey flowers were seen lovingly tied inside the knots of her new hairstyle. Mabel squealed and shrieked upon the very first sight of her new look, dancing and spinning in place and letting her braid whoosh around like a flower caught in the wind.

"Omigosh-omigosh-omi_gosh!_" she cheered, too enraptured with her own joy to care about anything else, "This is the most beautiful hairdo I've had since...EVER!" Fleur-de-lis and Bluebell both giggled warmly, happy to see Mabel enjoying her hairstyle.

"Well, I'm honored you love my achievement, Mizz Mabel…" Fleur smiled, bowing down politely towards the gleeful human.

"Love it? Love it!?" Mabel squeaked. She couldn't particularly find a proper feeling that was stronger than love, due to how excited she was, so instead, she showed her utmost gratitude by swooping down, carefully picking up Fleur, and bringing him in for a soft, strong loving and grateful embrace.

"Oh, Mr. Fleur!" she swooned, "This is one of the greatest gifts that I've ever been given! Thank you so, so, so, _so _much!"

Fleur-de-lis was quite surprised to be caught in such an unexpected hug like this, but considering he noticed how truly appreciative Mabel was for his feat and that the hug he was actually soft and warm, thanks to the fact that the tight hug was made soft because of Mabel's sweater, Fleur felt a big smile stretch across his face as he too returned the hug without questioning or complaining.

"Ah, it waz my pleazure, my dearezt Mabel…" he said with a honeyed tone and a warm grin, "It waz ze leazt I could do for you!" Mabel blushed and squee'd with pride.

"I especially love these lil' flowers you put in my hair! I look like a fairy-tale princess!" she commented, pointing out the white posies sprinkled across her hair. Fleur grinned even wider.

"Ah, _oui_, those flowerz are there to reflect on how pure your heart iz, Mabel…" he replied truthfully. Mabel seemed a tad puzzled at that.

"'Pure?'" she echoed.

Fluer-de-lis nodded. "Indeed. It zhows how ztrong and loving and big your heart iz from ze inzide! How zhere izn't a bad bone in your body." he explained fondly and genuinely, "We all know you and your brother wouldn't do a thing to hurt any of uz, zo we know we have nothing to fear from you two…"

Fleur's words certainly did sound sincere, from what Mabel had noticed. She truly does love her new hairstyle, and she was beyond flattered to hear such loving praise coming from the little hairstylist, but still, she felt a twinge of doubt peck away from inside of her.

Mabel's not usually the perfect child, as we all know. There were certainly times where she can be bossy, bratty, hot-headed, and sneaky, and there were times where she doesn't really think about how impactful her ideas and plans can be. Sure, she does show true love to her friends and family, her twin brother Dipper being the one she genuinely does love the most, but even she has her days where she can not be as attentive as she hoped to be.

Her role in Weirdmageddon proved to highlight this glaring issue in particular…

However, ever since Dipper had attempted to run away back to Gravity Falls after missing his friends from there so much, Mabel decided it was high-time to try and change her attitude. She became more thoughtful and caring to other's feelings, did her best to think out her plans carefully, and she treated Dipper with more respect and trust than ever before! She still kept her cheerful demeanor, because she was that kind of person, but in addition, she wanted to show that, in spite of how well-intentioned her ideas can be, she was still a genuinely loving person deep down.

It was a lengthy, tiresome process to change how she can usually act, but Mabel didn't care. She just wanted her relationship with Dipper to still be as strong as it ever was, and thankfully, it still was.

But regardless, Mabel was still unsure that she felt like she has changed for the better. Her hyperactivity and increasingly-positive outlook on life were some of her most defining traits, but also her most troublesome flaws as well. She can normally be too accepting and chipper, and she would tend to follow her heart within most situations, no matter how dire they can be.

There were also times where Mabel can be unresponsive or tactless towards the feelings of her own allies at times, others including Dipper, Grunkle Stan, Pacifica, her friends, her family...

...and a certain blue-colored faerie that was unceremoniously squished by her own Grunkle.

Mabel felt her beaming grin waver into that of a small, sad frown. Her eyes, once filled with joy, were now brimming with regret. She wished she had the initiative to save Bluebell when she had the chance last summer during that trip. Sure, she may not have known Bluebell that well back then, but after properly getting to know her and learning about how much of a considerate and curious, though shy-hearted sweetheart she was during her stay here, it just made Mabel's heart ache to know she was a witness upon seeing her little faerie friend get injured like that and not act upon it.

Mabel sat there, silent and sorrowful, unable to piece together another sentence to say until a concerned Fleur-de-lis managed to snap her out of her trance. "Mizz Mabel? Are you okay?" he coaxed ever so softly.

The brunette girl blinked, suddenly returning back to reality as she gazed down at both Fleur and Bluebell down below her on the ground. The sight of Bluebell's big, worrisome eyes was enough to nearly make Mabel choke back some incoming tears of guilt, but still, she kept her composure as best as she could.

"Uh...y-yeah...I'm okay…" she tried to assure, although her stuttering voice made it clear she was denying her claim. Fleur-de-lis fretfully gasped.

"Oh, dear...d-did I do zomething wrong with your hair? Oh, _mon dieu_, zhis izn't good at all…" he worried with a heartbroken tone. Mabel went wide-eyed and tried to assure the faerie hairdresser before he could really feel down.

"Oh, no-no-no-no, Mr. Fleur! Nothing's wrong with my hair! It's super lovely and you did a fantastic job!" she praised kindly, giving Fleur a smile of solace for his work. Fleur managed a tiny, thankful smile, but Bluebell still seemed confused and stricken with temptation.

"Then, what's the matter, M-Mabel?" she asked in a docile, concerned voice, akin to the squeak of a baby mouse, "You can t-tell us…"

Mabel gulped and felt her hands get clammy and sweaty. She desperately wanted to discuss the matter of Bluebell's encounter with Grunkle Stan with the faerie in question, but she didn't want to come across as disrespectful and hostile at the same time. She felt like even if she did apologize, Bluebell would then be scared of Mabel, or even get angry at her for not being a more attentive person and letting her get squished like that, thus destroying their budding friendship.

As much as she didn't want to rush into a situation like this in her usual gung-ho fashion, she still wanted to show how sorry she was for Bluebell's accident.

"Um...if it's not too much, though…" Mabel asked down at Fleur-de-lis with a hopeful, though nervous smile, "C-Could I maybe have some alone time with Bluebell. I just wanna tell her something important…" Fleur was certainly willing to meet with Mabel's careful instructions, although Bluebell seemed more scared and confused than willing.

"Oh, d-dear...d-did I do something wrong, M-Mabel? I-I don't know w-what I-"

"Bluebell, it's okay…" Mabel assured with her softest and most motherliest smile ever, interrupting Bluebell's woeful stuttering before she could spiral into incomprehensible stammering, "You aren't in trouble and I am _not_ angry with you...I just wanna talk about something important with you is all…"

Bluebell still wasn't sure what Mabel was meaning by "something important", to be honest, but even in spite of how skittish she was, she still trusted Mabel's instincts and she didn't want to disappoint her. Even though she herself was a faerie and Mabel was a human, she still hoped to become great and firm friends with the bubbly human through and through. So, taking in a deep, calming, and brave breath of fresh oxygen, Bluebell made her final decision towards the expecting Mabel.

"O-Okay, Mabel...if it's important t-to you, then we can talk about it…" she deduced, giving Mabel a kind (though still somewhat-shy) smile in return.

That made Mabel smile back in relief and gratitude. She then turned back at the patiently-waiting Fleur-de-lis with an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry for lettin' you out of the loop here, Mr. Fleur. It's kind of an important thing I gotta speak with Bluebell only." she said as tactfully and carefully as she could humanly be, but luckily, Fleur looked perfectly okay with this.

"Ah, no problem, Mizz Mabel…" he replied with a gentlemanly bow, "No need to stick my wingz in zomebody elze'z buzinezz when I'm not needed…" Mabel flashed him a soft smile.

"Still, though…" Mabel continued, "Thanks so much for braiding my hair! It's gorgeous!" She then reached over to her backpack, hoping to retrieve something from one of the side pockets, "Here, lemme pay you for your troubles…"

However, before she can scour inside her backpack for any loose change, Fleur-de-lis quickly buzzed over and gently stopped her right before such a thing could happen. "Oh, no-no-no-no, Mizz Mabel, zhere iz no need for payment of any kind!" he reassured kindly, "Just zeeing you happy with your new hairztyle is enough for _moi_. Bezidez, think of zhis az a welcome prezent to our village, my dear friend!"

A blush of bright red spread across Mabel's gratefully-smiling face like wildfire. Even though she felt nervous and guilty deep down in her heart, the kind and generous nature of these sweet, little faeries was enough to warm up Mabel even more than when she'd wear her biggest, fluffiest sweater ever.

"Thank you, Mr. Fleur." Mabel said kindly with an appreciative nod, "Thank you very much…"

Fleur nodded back with a tender smile of his own. "I'll leave you two alone to talk…" he assured. And with that, Fleur-de-lis fluttered away to gather his comb and brush and to fly away far enough to give Mabel and Bluebell some much-needed space.

Now, Mabel was safely alone with the little, timid Bluebell, giving her ample time to speak to her about her problem. However, the poor human girl was still finding it hard to piece together words carefully enough to make sure she wouldn't upset Bluebell too much, so all she could do was think and sweat nervously as she sat on the grassy ground in silence. The only noises to be heard were the lucid sounds of tweeting birds and buzzing insects from all around the forest.

Bluebell grew more confused and worried over this lack of communication and decided to pry Mabel a bit to get her to open up. "M-Mabel, dear?" she piped up softly, "A-Are you okay? Is something the matter?"

Mabel swallowed deeply and her teeth chattered noisily. As much as she was scared to discuss this with Bluebell, a faerie who wound up getting the short end of the stick upon meeting her own Grunkle, she knew she had to get this uncomfortable and uneasy feeling out of her chest. Mustering up every ounce of courage and strength from inside, Mabel did her best to bring the conversation to a shaky start.

"Bluebell? I-I have something to mention to you…" uttered Mabel with a squeak. Bluebell gulped herself and felt her spine shiver out of fright, but she didn't object to anything as of yet.

"Wh-What is it that you'd like to m-mention?" Bluebell asked. Although she was scared to know what Mabel was trying to say to her, she was also very curious and she wanted to see how she could help her new friend out. However, Mabel's voice hitched up and her stomach in knots, the poor girl was having a rather hard time to piece her explanation as clear as can be.

"Well...I...I…" Mabel began, gulping and feeling tiny beads of sweat. It really was now or never. "D-Do you know when you m-met that human last s-summer? The one y-you described to me and D-Dipper earlier?"

Bluebell felt her throat warp into a knot as she suddenly found herself looking rather nervous upon being reminded of her near-fatal encounter with Mabel's Grunkle last year. The look of dread shown across Bluebell's face was exactly what Mabel was terrified of witnessing during this reveal, but the human still tried to stay strong, despite her eyes leaking with small tears. Mabel tried to stay as brave as she could be, now attempting to bring out the coup de grace to this ordeal, so to speak.

"Well...t-t-the thing is... I-I have to confess t-to you that that human was...actually my...Grunkle Stan…" she finally admitted, her tone heavy with deep regret. Bluebell widened her eyes at this sudden piece of disclosure!

"Oh dear...t-that's terrible, I-" Bluebell suddenly found herself cutting her sentence short, a look of confusion spreading across her face in place of fear, "Wait a minute...what is a 'Grunkle'?" she then asked out of pure curiosity.

Mabel blinked some tears away from her moist eyes, trying to hold back her sobs as best as she could. "Stan is my grandfather-uncle…we call him 'Grunkle' in short..." she explained tearfully. Bluebell still seemed puzzled at this odd description.

"He's your grandfather _and_ your uncle?" she asked slowly in a low voice, "How on Earth is that possible?"

Mabel frowned softly, still trying to not have her sad emotions cause her to become a total mess yet. "Well, you see it's...well, the things is...t-that's not important right now…" muttered Mabel pathetically, "The point is that my Grunkle Stan was the very human you met that hurt you…"

Bluebell gasped worriedly at this reveal, looking up at the sorrowful Mabel with big, sad eyes. "Oh, goodness me…" she breathed out. She wasn't sure how to properly react to this. But unfortunately for Mabel, she still had one more issue to mention with the little faerie and it was a doozy, to say the least.

"And also…" Mabel began, her heart pounding like a bass drum in her chest, "there's a-another t-thing I gotta s-say…"

Bluebell felt her own miniscule heart beating rapidly from how enraptured in suspense she was. She may have known Mabel for only a little while, but to see this normally-cheerful and happy-go-lucky human look so nervous, scared, and sad like this really wasn't doing any favors for Bluebell at all. Even with the idea of one of Mabel's relatives being the one to squish her that one time still milling around fresh inside her mind, she still felt sincerely concerned for Mabel regardless.

"M-Mabel?" she squeaked out, like the coo of a dove, "Is everything a-alright?"

Poor Mabel was truly having a difficult time trying to explain her next big reveal. All she had to say was that she just happened to be a witness to seeing Stan smack away Bluebell and that was that. And yet, the frightened human twin was too pent up with so much emotional baggage to try and let her words flow out freely. She was still too scared that she might wind up hurting Bluebell even more with this revelation, though more mentally and emotionally than physically in this case. She didn't want to lose Bluebell as a new friend, but she still couldn't live with this guilt any longer.

With no good options coming to her, all Mabel could do was well up with fresh, warm tears as she sobbed frightfully on the ground, unclear on how or what to say. Her cheeks were red and her head hung low.

"And when you s-said th-that you s-saw some other humans there w-with my G-Grunkle S-Stan…well..." Mabel spluttered out, her sobs and stuttering tainting her explanation greatly. Mabel knew she had to get this off of her chest regardless, so without thinking, she would up doing the next best thing she could do to get her statement out into the open.

"...w-well...well...ONE OF THOSE HUMANS WAS ME!"

To blurt it out as to get it over with.

Mabel's statement was loud enough for Bluebell to clearly hear, but thankfully, it wasn't enough to carry across the whole village. Bluebell's pupils shrank and she let out a shocked gasp upon hearing that. Mabel of all humans actually witnessed her getting squished by a human!? To say Bluebell was floored by this was a rather large understatement! Before she could say anything to this matter, Mabel's sobs escalated into woeful, uncontrollable, full-blown crying at this point, her heart still hurting from being so dismissive over her new friend's incident.

"M-Mabel, you w-were actually there when t-that happened?" Bluebell managed to squeak out. Mabel nodded pitifully.

"I-I don't know why I d-didn't try to help you o-or come to your aid at t-the time! I'm such a bad, bad friend! I shouldn't have been s-such a jerk!" Mabel wailed her poor, little heart out with noncompliance. She was so distraught that she wasn't even feeling better having revealed her witnessing Bluebell nearly dying! Her heart was too heavy with grief to find any shred of solace at this point.

Bluebell, meanwhile, was busily trying to absorb the words Mabel had poured out to her as carefully as possible. She still couldn't believe Mabel was present during when she was trying to grab that old, fez-wearing human's attention, and yet, the truth had hit her like a brick, courtesy of the heartbroken human crying her eyes out before her. By this point, Mabel has crumpled up into a ball, still weeping away as her face went as red as a fresh strawberry.

Bluebell was horrified and downtrodden to see Mabel, one of the most friendliest and most upbeat humans she'd ever met (which is something considering she's only seen a few humans in her life), look so broken and saddened to the point of bursting into tears like this. The thoughts of learning about one of Mabel's relatives having been the one who had hurt her like that was cast aside for now, as she fluttered closer to the weeping Mabel, still huddled in a fetal position away from Bluebell, in order to see what was wrong with her.

As far as Bluebell was concerned, seeing her friends look so sad, regardless if they were faeries or humans, wasn't something that this little faerie hated to witness.

The blue-colored faerie gently floated down to Mabel's level, looking up at the girl's tear-streaked face as she began to console her as best as could. Bluebell reached her left hand up and carefully pushed away her new French braid aside, which was limply covering up Mabel's ashamed and leaky face. Then, she tried to wipe away Mabel's steadily-flowing tears, which proved to be fruitless as Bluebell felt her entire hand and upper arm get drenched upon contact, thanks to how small she was compared to Mabel.

Shaking away the residue from her dripping hand, Bluebell decided to try talking to Mabel instead. "M-Mabel?" she began gingerly, "Please, look at me, dearie…"

It took a few seconds for Mabel to comply. With her eyes now starting to become red from her excess crying, Bluebell had managed to get Mabel her full attention. The faerie stepped closer, gazing into the human girl's sad eyes.

"Mabel, how come you haven't told me about this earlier?" asked Bluebell, straight to the point. There were no single trace of anger, suspicion, bitterness, or even accusation in her voice at all, but her sad tone did indicate clear amounts of curiosity and confusion indeed. Mabel sniffled and tried to get her bearings straightened.

"I-I-I was too scared to do so…" she truthfully admitted, "I mean, w-we just became friends! How could I simply say that I wound up watching you get s-squashed by my Grunkle and did nothing about it a-afterwards!? But, this guilty feeling was building up i-inside me...I just couldn't keep it to me any longer…"

Another fit of sobs and sniffles followed after, with Mabel trying to control herself to continue speaking. "I couldn't bear to lose you as a friend, Bluebell. You're such a lil' sweetheart, and I really do wanna be your friend…" Mabel added, genuinity in her voice. Bluebell blushed upon hearing that statement before Mabel shakily took in a deep breath.

"B-But…" Mabel continued on, "I was scared to tell you, because then I thought you'd be mad at me...I should have helped you when I had the chance to. I'm just so sorry about that, and for my Grunkle Stan for hurting you…" Bluebell was aghast, too stunned to properly react to Mabel pouring her heart to her like this.

Mabel then slowly and shakily stood back up on her feet, nearly bowling over because of her trembling legs. She turned away from Bluebell, her expression wrought with sadness and rejection.

"I...I can understand if you are angry with me, Bluebell...I'm just sorry I wasn't being more watchful or caring at the time…"

Bluebell blinked away the hurt and confused tears forming in her tiny, but shiny eyes. She gazed at Mabel silently until the girl suddenly dropped a giant bomb upon her.

"I promise y-you won't have to deal with a jerk like me ever again…" Mabel sighed, her voice quivering, "I'll go fetch Dipper and we'll both leave you all alone…"

Poor Bluebell gasped in horror at the sound of that! Was Mabel really planning on leaving like this, especially over something that happened a long time ago? She didn't want to lose her new friend, even if was over something an event as horrid as this one!

Her senses and emotions _really_ got into overdrive upon seeing Mabel slowly shamble away from her, her head hanging low. Upon noticing, Bluebell took to the skies and soared straight towards Mabel before she could even think about leaving the forest.

"_NO!_" Bluebell cried out, her exclamation loud enough to carry across the trees and hills.

Mabel stopped in her tracks upon hearing such a noise coming from shy and quiet Bluebell of all faeries, and as she turned her head around, Bluebell suddenly collided with her face with a smack! Mabel let out a tiny yelp in response to it. Bluebell began embracing Mabel's head like an alien facehugger, weeping and gasping in fright over losing her human friend. Mabel stood there in muddled silence as Bluebell spoke up.

"Mabel, p-please don't leave!" cried the little faerie, clinging to Mabel like a scared child that was afraid of her seeing parents leave her. Mabel was stunned; why was Bluebell insisting that she'd stay?

"Wh-Wh-Whah?" gasped Mabel, unable to fully comprehend what was going on right now. Bluebell was sniffling up a storm as she kept clamping Mabel's head like a vice.

"M-Mabel, I don't understand. Wh-Why are you just going to leave like this?" she wept in confusion. Mabel tried keeping her composure, but even she couldn't help but to well up with tears again, guilty overflowing in her heart.

"B-B-Because...I-I didn't help you when G-Grunkle Stan hurt you!" she exclaimed, "I wasn't being a good friend to you. I-I'm really, really sorry, Bluebell!" Bluebell frowned softly as she kept on hugging Mabel's head, rubbing her forehead as a means to help calm her down.

"Mabel, you d-didn't know me back then!" reasoned Bluebell through her tears, "It's okay! You didn't know!"

Mabel paused her sobs for a moment. She glanced her eyes across to Bluebell. "...W-What?"

Bluebell finally let go of Mabel, fluttering up to her eye-level with a sad, yet serious look on her face. "Mabel, it's okay. I'm not angry or upset at you. Just please try and calm down…"

Mabel certainly did try to ease down her barrage of sobs and whimpers, though she did cast Bluebell a greatly baffled expression. "Wh-Why aren't you angry with m-me, Bluebell?" she whimpered, "I don't u-understand…"

Bluebell gave Mabel a reassuring smile. "Mabel, you didn't know me last summer. There was nothing you could've done!" Mabel sniffled pathetically, wiping her tears with her sweater sleeve.

"B-B-But my Grunkle hurt you...he could've...c-could've…" Poor Mabel was struggling to get her words out, especially at the part where she had to mention a certain word that begins with "K" and rhymes with "filled".

She was almost ready to let out another bombardment of sobs when Bluebell flapped closer to Mabel, reaching out her tiny hand to caress Mabel's wet cheeks. Just as her hand made contact with Mabel's face, Bluebell began emitting a sweet, calming scent of her own to help soothe Mabel's troubled nerves. The smell of fresh bluebell flowers hung in the air, its aroma wafting all around Mabel as Bluebell used her fluttering wings to carry the scent high and above them both.

Mabel inhaled the pleasing scent and then, slowly but surely, felt herself coming at ease. Her cries petered down to whimpers, but her face was still wrought with complete and utter grief and sadness. Bluebell sighed as she kept caressing Mabel warmly; perhaps she can knock some sense back into Mabel now.

"Mabel, I am not upset with you nor your Grunkle. I understand you feel guilty about not helping me back then, but it's okay. What matters is I'm still alive and alright now." she assured tenderly. Mabel blinked at her soggy eyes, still confused.

"B-But...my Grunkle Stan-"

"I know what your Grunkle Stan did, and I know you are upset by that, but _please_, don't beat yourself up over it, Mabel. It's all in the past now." Bluebell cut in calmly, yet firmly. Mabel was beyond confused.

"But...my Grunkle hurt you!" she emphasized, "Why would you be s-so forgiving for something like that?" Bluebell smiled softly.

"It's in our nature, Mabel." she replied back calmly, "Us faeries never usually tend to hold grudges against anyone, regardless of what they did. We just prefer to forgive and forget, is all."

Then, Bluebell blushed and nervously looked down at her fidgeting hands. "Besides...in all fairness, I'm really the sole reason that mess happened anyways…"

Mabel's watery eyes widened in shock. "You!? How?" she gasped.

Bluebell sighed nervously. "Well...I _did_ k-kind of travel too far away from my village. Plus, I _did_ get t-too close to your Grunkle…" she admitted awkwardly, "I always tend to sneak away from the village, only b-because I'm just so curious about the outside world...Oak always worries about us coming across humans, in case they try to hurt us or anything…"

Mabel sniffled, her lips forming into a sad pout. "He doesn't know humans that well…he's such a grumpy grump..." she mumbled.

Bluebell chuckled softly. "Rightfully so..." she agreed, "But he _does_ care for our health and safety...perhaps a bit _too_ much, though…"

Mabel managed to finally let out a chuckle at that, despite how guilty she was still feeling. "Maybe, heh-heh...oh, still, I feel upset my Grunkle hurt you like that...I'm so very sorry, Bluebell...I'll try and find a way to make it up to you somehow…"

Bluebell smiled kindly. "That's sweet of you, Mabel, b-but you really don't have to go to such lengths to make it up to me. I mean, I'm still okay now, right?" she replied, trying to sound appreciative. Mabel shook her head.

"Maybe, but still, I wanna show how sorry I am. Please, Bluebell, just trust me on this…" she pleaded sadly.

Bluebell frowned softly, but slowly obliged. Hopefully once Mabel does what she thinks will make it up for her and her Grunkle's actions will ease her troubles completely. "Well, okay, Mabel. If it'll help you feel much better…"

Mabel exhaled happily. With Bluebell accepting her plea, she can now be able to make it up to her for what her Grunkle did...and luckily, she knew how to do it, though it'll have to wait once she returns home later today.

"Thank you, Bluebell...you don't know how much this means to me…" she humbled replied, a small smile finally appearing on her dampened and blushing face. Bluebell beamed sweetly up at the human girl, happy to have helped tame her sadness for the time being.

"You're more than welcome, Mabel. Is there anything else you'd like to talk about?" asked Bluebell softly.

Mabel's smile quickly went away and she gulped. Admittedly, she did have something else to mention that involved one of her friends encountering a faerie last summer, but how she was going to break this to Bluebell was going to prove to be very tough and awkward indeed. She let out a shaky sigh, trying not to let her sadness overwhelm her again.

"Well...the thing is…"

But before anything else could be said between the two, a pair of familiar voice rang out in the forest, causing both Bluebell and Mabel to jump in shock.

"Is everything okay here, mates!?"

"We, like, heard some loud crying from far away!"

Bluebell and Mabel paused their little moment only briefly to notice two other faeries join right away in their conversation, those faeries being Wattle and Sage. The pair of faeries zipped around the multi-colored trees, looks of concern evident across their faces as they both had managed to hear Mabel's crying from afar. Mabel tried to regain her composure as not to have the other two faeries notice her apparent grief, but it was already too late as both Sage and Wattle spotted Mabel's tear-streaked face and puffy red eyes even from far away.

As Mabel tried to wipe away her face, Sage and Wattle hovered close in front of her at eye level. They were both wracked with deepest distress at seeing their human friend look so down. "Mabel, are you okay?" gasped Wattle.

"Yeah, you look like you been, like, crying your heart out…" commented Sage sadly, "What's wrong?"

Poor Mabel wasn't sure how to explain herself right now. Part of her was still scared to reveal that fact that she had been observing her Grunkle Stan harming a faeries, even after she had explained it to Bluebell, the faerie whom had fallen victim to such a near-dreadful fate. And even if Bluebell was willing to forgive and forget her, Mabel hadn't the foggiest idea on how the others would react to this news.

Perchance, what if they told Oak what had happened? He'd go ballistic if he found out she and Dipper were assailants to a faerie nearly dying before them!

Mabel tried gathering any last speck or crumb of courage left inside of her heart and soul to begin reexplaining her story again to Wattle and Sage, but fear was holding her back. But, when she was ready to piece together her story while also trying not to resume crying again, another voice cut in before she could get a full sentence out.

"Well, I-"

"We were discussing important things was all!"

Mabel paused, her voice hitched and subdued into silence as Bluebell bravely fluttered up, facing Wattle and Sage with a serious, but civil and calm demeanor.

"Mabel was simply going some personal problems was all. She just needed to vent was all, so I was there to help lend her a shoulder to cry on." was what Bluebell had briskly, but reassuringly explained to the pair.

Mabel blinked in surprise; why was Bluebell covering up her tracks like that? Was it to try and not cause an uproar, as a means to protect Mabel from getting a scolding? She was especially shocked to hear Bluebell, a normally shy and nomadic faerie, sound so calm and diplomatic and serious, almost like one of the speech-and-debate students from her school. Wattle and Sage seemed to understand where Bluebell was going with this, but they were both still puzzled and worried for Mabel's sake.

"Personal problems? Oof, that sounds bogus…" gasped Sage softly.

"Is there any way we can help, mate?" offered Wattle innocently, "If Mabel's having trouble with something, she can come to us and we can try and help her…"

Bluebell could certainly tell the two faerie meant well and gave them a kindly smile. "Thank you, Wattle, but everything will be fine now. Just some certain topics only between us, that's all."

Wattle and Sage shared a look with each other, unsure on how to process all this as Mabel stood back, gazing at Bluebell in wonder. However, both faeries respected Bluebell very much and they both didn't want to come between what was so important that it only had to be shared only with her and Mabel. They gave Bluebell warm looks, though they still seemed confused regardless of accepting Bluebell's wishes.

"Well, okay then…"

"If ya both are sure…"

Bluebell beamed softly. "I'm sure, but we do appreciate your kindness...don't we, Mabel?" she continued, giving Mabel a subtle wink. Mabel's brain went into overdrive as she followed along with Bluebell.

"Uh, well…*sniffle*...yep, just some girl talk was all...heh-heh, yeah…" came Mabel's nervous reply, her tone sounding perky in spite of the lingering bit of sadness still present within her voice. Even though Bluebell had assured them that Mabel was indeed okay, Sage and Wattle still wanted to help their human friend as much as they can.

"Maybe we can help cheer you up, Mabel?" Sage offered sweetly.

"Yeah, we hate seein' our friends look so down in the dumps." agreed Wattle with a smile. Then, an idea came to him and Sage, almost simultaneously.

"Ooh, we can treat Mabel with, like, some herbal tea!" gasped Sage blissfully, "Nothing soothes one's troubled nerves like some fresh chamomile!"

Wattle nodded excitedly. "Yeah, that sounds stellar!" he chortled, before turning back to Mabel, "How does that sound, Mabel? Maybe tea can help ease your sadness."

Mabel managed to give the two something of a gracious smile. Perhaps tea could help settle her frayed nerves? "T-That sounds nice, actually." she admitted. However, before she was ready to get up and join the group, she gazed at Bluebell, a question forming in her mind.

"Uh, we'll both catch up with you in a little bit. I wanna ask Bluebell something first in private, if that's okay?" she asked softly. Bluebell seemed confused, but Sage and Wattle were completely understanding.

"Take all the time you need, Mabel." assured Wattle kindly.

"Yeah, we'll meet you two in the village square when you're both ready." replied Sage, as she and Wattle began getting ready to head to the center of the village to prep up some tea for Mabel and Bluebell. The human girl and the shy faerie both watched Sage and Wattle flutter away from earshot, just as Mabel felt comfortable enough to ask her question to Bluebell in peace.

"Bluebell?"

Bluebell looked up. "Y-Yes, Mabel?" she asked, her stutters slowly returning back.

Mabel stared back in Bluebell's eyes, curiosity and confusion shining within her pupils. "Why didn't you tell them about the whole business with Grunkle Stan?"

Bluebell rubbed her right arm and shyly looked away. "Well, uh, I j-just didn't want to put too much p-pressure on you was all...you seemed terribly s-scared to tell me this news, and I didn't want you t-to feel even more frightened when you had to tell the others…"

Mabel blinked in surprise. She wasn't expecting to have Bluebell save her skin like this. So far, since she had met Bluebell, Mabel has seen her as a timid and skittish, but well-meaning and sweet faerie, but now, she has witnessed that Bluebell is also watchful and protective towards her friends as well, even if one of her friends is a human.

Mabel was indeed impressed with Bluebell's actions and was truly thankful for her help as well. Slowly but surely, Mabel was beginning to feel a little bit more at ease now. She sighed happily, her heart rate slowing and her tears ceased flowing as she gave Bluebell a big, grateful grin.

"Thank you, Bluebell...thanks for having my back…" she graciously thanked, to which Bluebell politely returned her gesture with a smile of her own.

"Anytime, Mabel. What are friends for?" cooed Bluebell kindly. Mabel beamed even brighter, until her smile dropped temporarily as another thought struck her again, causing her to grow worrisome again.

"You know they'll found out about this soon enough, right? With my Grunkle having been the one who hurt you?" she squeaked worriedly. Bluebell simply gave her a tender smile.

"Maybe…" she mused thoughtfully, before placing a tiny, but supportive hand on Mabel's left arm, looking up at the girl with a brave smile, "But even so, should you feel comfortable enough to say anything in front of Rosemary or Oak or anyone else, then I'll be here to help you all the way, Mabel."

Mabel blinked away the remaining tears welling up in her eyes, gazing down at Bluebell with subdued surprise. "...P-Promise?" she asked softly.

Bluebell beamed proudly, as if her shy demeanor was non-existent. "I promise."

Then, switching back to her usually timid persona, Bluebell cleared her throat gently and spoke back up to her human friend. "M-Mabel?"

"Hmm?"

Then, much to Mabel's surprise, Bluebell hugged Mabel's left arm warmly. Her aura-soothing aroma had never lightened up even for a second, the scent gently wafting around the pair as they silently basked in each other's warmth for a good while. At long last, Bluebell carefully let go of Mabel to look her back into her eyes, to ensure if she was doing okay.

"Don't worry about a thing, Mabel...things will work out in the end and I'm sure the others will understand everything...it wasn't your fault, Mabel. I promise…no one is hurt now and we should just let bygones be bygones now...okay?"

Mabel felt a smile slowly starting to return to her regularly-sunny face, genuinely happy to have a true friend in Bluebell. "O-Okay...thanks, lil' Bluebell…" she said softly, her smile never leaving her face. Bluebell returned the gesture wholeheartedly as the two good friends basked in their warm glow.

Their comfort continued for a good solid minute before Bluebell softly broke the silence. "How's about we have that tea now, Mabel?" she offered, "We don't want to keep Wattle and Sage waiting now." Mabel managed to finally muster the strength to giggle.

"Sure thing!" she chirped agreeingly, and with that, Mabel and Bluebell set off down the grassy lane leading back to the main part of the faerie village, with Bluebell fluttering very closely next to Mabel along the way.

As they neared the village square, Mabel began thinking to herself in regards of the faeries. To say she was blown away by how forgiving and understanding these faeries were as a whole was a great understatement. She knew that the faeries were a sheltered and genuinely-kind race of creatures, but after seeing Bluebell speak so highly about her and witnessing her come to her aid was enough for Mabel to now harbor a newfound respect for her shy, little friend.

'_If only humans were as forgiving as these faeries are…the world could use more of these lil' guys..._' she thought warmly in her mind.

However, Mabel knew she wasn't totally scot-free as of now. She had also nearly forgotten another glaring problem she had overlooked: the fact that Lavender, one of the faeries that lived with the others in the hidden village, was legit killed by someone close to her. That someone being their oafish, but lovable Soos.

The thought of Soos hurting one of her new faerie friends scared Mabel to near death. Sure, there are times where Soos can be absent-minded or clumsy, but he was a good guy overall! Heck, he's basically a walking, talking teddy bear; there ain't no way he could intentionally hurt somebody! One things for sure, she was going to have to have a talk with Soos after today in regards to his actions last year.

Mabel tried not to let her nervousness visibly show yet again, but she wasn't sure how to explain that issue to the others without sounding like an intruder or anything. Sure, Bluebell escaping from death was one thing, but Lavender was a different story! And on top of that, she and Dipper had witnessed that scene in person as well! How on Earth was she going to talk about _this_ now!? What would Rosemary's reaction be? What would _Oak's_ reaction be!?

However, just as Mabel was nearly seconds away from having a panic attack, she inhaled deeply and let it all out calmly. Right now, all she had to do was keep her mind at ease, just like what Bluebell said. She wasn't going anywhere worrying like this. In due time, she will find a way to tactfully explain the situation to the others, and hopefully, if all goes well, there will be some sort of understanding between her and the other faeries.

As the pair arrived in the village to meet up with Wattle and Sage, Mabel kept trying to think as calmly and positively about this situation, as a means to keep a clear head throughout all this. Deep down, in spite of her worrying thoughts, Mabel tried keeping her spirits as high as they could be. Bluebell was right; she just needed to keep her positive outlook on life shining as bright as it can be. Luckily, Mabel was practically sunny and brimming with good thoughts 24/7, so hopefully she should still continue to keep a cool head during her and Dipper's stay here in the village.

And with Bluebell, her new confidant, by her side, Mabel knew things would be okay soon enough.

All she needed to do was take it one step at a time. But for now, so long as her new friend Bluebell was happy, Mabel was happy too.

* * *

**ELSEWHERE, MANY MILES AWAY FROM THE VILLAGE…**

* * *

"Grr...come now…" uttered a gruff-sounding voice to no one in particular, "Where the bloomin' 'eck is that dratted village? I have to be close by now…"

The unknown figure's voice was clearly feminine and had an Irish accent to boot, but it also was an octave lower than usual, giving off something of a baritone-like tone rather than a light and airy voice instead.

The creature had trotted her way through the Gravity Falls woodlands for God-knows how many months, in search of a certain place that's been hidden away in this very same forest for centuries, home to one of the town's most best-kept secrets.

The faeries.

For all her life, she's been hoping to find this faerie village one day, as a means to find this place and reveal its exact location to the rest of her own kind, so that they can see this village for themselves. Her kind never had a good thing to say about faeries at all, and hopefully, should she finally discover the fabled faerie village during her venture, the day where she and her clan can finally overcome the faerie race will soon be upon them.

Others back at home tended to say she was too dedicated with her work, to the point where they'd sometimes call her crazy or loony because of it, but in the end, she didn't care what others thought of her personality. Finding these pesky, doe-eyed faeries was top priority in her book.

However, it has been month after month and she still had no lead to where this village was exactly located, and it was really getting on her nerves. Day after day, she kept camping out and searching around in one tucked-away section of the forest, trudging through creeks, hills, swamps, ditches, knolls, fields, and dirt trails just to find a single, solitary clue as to where this village can be.

Her body was covered in bandages and was caked in dirt and mud. Her legs ached like there was no tomorrow, but she still didn't give up. She _had_ to find this village, no matter the cost. Her leader informed her about the possibility of faeries being in the Falls, as evident upon discovery that a batch of faerie dust was reportedly shown in possession of human beings, so she knew she must carry on with her self-appointed mission.

Soon enough, after clomping tiredly down the shady, dirt path, the creature soon found herself perched on top of a steep incline, looking down across a familiar plain of tall grass below her from on the slope she was stuck on. Her big eyes squinted in thought as she looked at what was supposedly a patch of grassy moss down below the gradient. Apparently, from what she heard, this area can be tricky to newcomers.

Spotting a rock on the ground close by one of her feet, she used her strength to cautiously kick the rock away from her, sending it tumbling down the hill and then, without warning, ending its downhill trip by splashing into the moss-covered pond, revealing the small patch of grass' true colors.

The mysterious creature scoffed. '_Child's play…_' she thought smugly.

Just then, using her strong and powerful legs, she ran forward and with an almighty push of both her front and hind legs, she jumped high and long on top of the hill, gracefully and successfully jumping over the mossy pond below her as she came plummeting down to Earth once again.

The creature landed on the safe, firm ground on all feet with a harsh thud. Miraculously, she wasn't hurt because of how tough her body and legs were, so she was able to continue on with her search without any trouble or pain. However, before she can resume her quest, her snout caught a scent from something close by.

She craned her head around the field until she spotted something amidst the fields of green a few inches away from her. Something small, fluffy and yellow. She inhaled a deep breath of air, taking in the scent of the flowers below her.

'_Pollen…_' she deduced thoughtfully. She knew faeries had a love for pollen, using it for food, clothing, and other things. Wherever there was a good supply of pollen, there must be a chance faeries must be nearby.

"I must be getting close…" she stated aloud. And with that, she let out a snort and kept sniffing around the area for more pollen and clues as she headed towards the grassy lane that led into another thick and far away part of the forest.

The part of the forest which led closer to the faeries' village.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

* * *

**And so ends Chapter Six, everyone! Before I can discuss any important matters, here's the usual slew of tidbits of this chapter.**

**-Fleur-de-lis, the newly-introduced faerie in this chapter, is really more of a minor character in this story, whereas his contributions to the story mainly just add up to giving Mabel a new hairdo. Both personality and appearance-wise, he's mostly inspired by pianist / singer Liberace to show off his glitz and glamor and bombastic personality. His name comes from a type of stylized lily of French origin (hence the faerie's accent) that's normally used as a decor or a symbol of sorts.**

**-Speaking on a personal level, I'm not totally sure if I nailed down the reconciliation scene between Mabel and Bluebell if I can be 100% honest. Personally, her mentioning stuff about not being a more attentive person stems back to one of my previous GF fanfics "Saudade", in which I was hoping to somewhat rectify the fan-driven accusation about Mabel tending to be careless and reckless to other people's feelings, including Dipper's. I was hoping to flesh her out to have her become more caring to others, but I feel like I may have wound up jumping the gun during the reveal where she was actually there when Stan squished Bluebell last summer, like I may have rushed that part a bit or made it come right out of left field or something. Still, I was hoping to give Mabel some closure during the situation, and in the end, things now seem to be fine b/w her and Bluebell now, so yay for that! :)**

**-Before one asks, there is a point where the topic of Soos actually (albeit incidentally) killing a faerie back in the actual show will be brought up in this story, though it'll be at a later chapter and it shall include both Mabel and Dipper breaking the sad bit of news about this to the other faeries. The possibility of whether Oak is getting involved or not is something I'm gonna keep secret until that chapter comes, though… ;)**

**-Lastly, as it turns out, this story's gonna have an antagonist after all! So far, she's meant to be kept away in the shadows for now, but her true species and identity shall be revealed in at least two or three more chapters. However, there are a couple of subtle describing tidbits I've placed at the end to hint at what her exact species might be… ;)**

**Now, as posted a couple of weeks ago, this story's going to soon be put onto a slight hiatus so that I can keep up with my other stories. This story's progress shall continue on in the meantime, so I'll try and get work on the other chapters as soon as I can, while also playing catch-up with my other stories as well. If I had to guess when the next chapter would come up, it'd probably be either in November (at best) or December (at worst) of this year.**

**Expect a Wendip story to come sometime in the Fall season and until then, I'll see you all soon…hopefully soon enough… ;)**

**~Thunderbyrd**


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